Feeling Thirsty?

Today is World Water Day and 2013 is the UN’s International Year of Water Cooperation.

World Water Day was established as an annual event 10 years ago to highlight the plight of millions of people who live without secure access to clean fresh water.  According to UN figures 780 million people – 1 in every 9 – don’t have access to clean water.  Dirty water kills 3.4 million people every year.  A child dies every 21 seconds from a water related disease.

This has greater significance than usual for me this year as I am currently staying in India, in Bangalore in the southern state of Karnataka.  The climate here for eight months of the year is hot and dry.  The region depends entirely on the annual Monsoon rains that fall between June and September to refill rivers and aquifers. In the residential compound where I am staying, householders have recently received a communication from the management company saying that collectively we are using too much water and imploring residents to be more efficient in their usage.

It’s a big deal.  In 2009 the Monsoon ‘failed’ in India.  This is to say the rains came late and when they did come they brought about 43% less water than an average year.  Thousands died in the drought and neighbours turned upon each other in vicious squabbles over water.  India was forced to increase food imports and world sugar prices reached a 30 year high. Of course water is essential not just for drinking but for agriculture, industry, power generation and for the country’s wildlife.

Last year, a long running dispute over the use of water in the Cauvery (Kaveri) River which runs between Karnataka and the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu burst back in to life.  An agreement forged in 1892 between the princely state of Mysore and the Madras Presidency, part of the British Raj, attempted to divide the river water fairly for all people living along its course, but population growth has put that agreement under continuous stress ever since. It has been a constant problem for the successor states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.  Last year the state of Karnataka restricted water flowing across the border and in the ensuing arguments the Supreme Court of India had to order Karnataka to release more water.  The decision led to strikes and demonstrations across the state.

Worryingly, a report published last November by researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research warned that changes to global weather patterns could cause Monsoon failures to happen more frequently, with severe water shortages occurring one year in every five..

The one good thing about the Cauvery dispute is that is entirely contained within India and the national government and its agencies can enforce relatively peaceful resolutions.  The UN is currently monitoring several regions of the world where international water disputes have the potential to develop in to more serious conflicts.  These include water from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which are shared between Turkey, Syria and Iraq; the Jordan River which involves Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories; The Nile which borders Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan; The Mekong River which links China, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia; and the Central Asian basin around the Aral Sea, connecting Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Many analysts predict that water will be the main cause of wars in the coming century.  In fact some people point to the recent conflict in Darfur and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as examples of ‘water conflicts’, hence the emphasis on Water Cooperation which is the theme of this year’s activities.

Here in Karnataka, in the village down the road the bore holes are drying up and the Monsoon is still three months away. Meanwhile, at the exclusive golf course where I have been spending much of my time here in Bangalore, members complain about the state of the fairways which are hard and dry, and the owners are buying tanker loads of water to fill the ornamental lakes.  What was that about water cooperation?