The Battle for Water: The Challenge of the 21st Century

By Claude Piel

This is the "Diplomatic Council Water Book" which was officially presented at the United Nations Water Conference 2023 in New York.

Water is the basis of all life. Although more than 70 percent of our blue planet is covered with water, only three percent of it is fresh water, of which only a third is safe for human beings. Global water consumption has doubled since the 1960s but the resources have not risen proportionately.

Approximately two billion people in the world already lack regular access to safe drinking water. Both global warming, which is caused by climate change, and the simultaneous growth of the world's population will lead to a dramatic escalation of the situation. Water will become an increasingly scarce resource: one quarter of the world's population is threatened by acute water shortages. Furthermore, as agriculture cannot exist without water, famines are imminent.

Experts consider "water stress" a source of starvation, conflict and migration. Those who believe this affects North Africa and the Middle East only, are mistaken. For also in other parts of the world (America, Asia, Australia, Europe) water stress has long been noticeable.

In this book the author precisely analyzes what we will be faced with if we do not succeed in solving the "water problem". At the same time she shows how to secure a global water supply in the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diplomatic Council e.V.
• Release date: Apr 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9783986740726

Claude Piel

Claude Piel, engaged in the Diplomatic Council as Consul, is characterized by a global mindset imbued with respect, curiosity, peace and prosperity. She is aware of the diversity of cultures and markets on a global as well as on a local level, and is open to them. She studied political science, journalism and law at Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, after completing an L.L.B. and an M.A. in information and development at Panthéon-Assas University in Paris, France. She is now an internationally recognized author, presenter and television producer. As Diplomatic Council Consul for Diplomacy and Peace, Claude Piel's priority is to work towards sustainable peace through diplomacy. She works on peace with all Diplomatic Council members, diplomats and businesses in order to serve the overall goals of the United Nations.

Book preview

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all those, who have no access to clean drinking water. Whether in the desert or on remote islands, whether in the slums of North America, the favellas of Brazil, the big cities of Africa or Asia: millions of people suffer from the poor quality of drinking water. This book is for them and especially for the children who suffer from the unspeakable lack of clean water.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Center for Applied Technologies and the mari-CUBE in the field of blue biotechnologies and aquaculture for their active support.

Thanks to Philippe Cury, a French scientist who has significantly influenced research by developing ecological concepts as well as international scientific leadership on the ecosystem approach to exploited marine resources.

Thanks to the management of the program Man-Society-Environment at the University of Basel in Switzerland. It deals with various aspects of sustainable resource management.

Thanks to the global think tank Diplomatic Council, whose publishing house publishes this book and which, as an advisory organization to the United Nations, fights tirelessly for peace and humanity.

Note

The author has taken great care to write this work in her own writing style. This increases the authenticity of her explanations and is an expression of her passion for this essential topic for the survival of mankind.

Content

Foreword

Prologue

Power factor water

Water knowledge is important

Introduction

A speech to the United Nations

Nine billion people by 2040

Actions speak louder than words

A scarce and essential commodity

Three types of conflicts over water

Water wars in the 21st century

Interrelationships in conflicts over water

The water powers

The water cycle and rain

The water of life for food and much more

Five types of drinking water

Access to water and infrastructure

Lack of water access and water treatment

The way to clean drinking water

The damage has been done

Over 50 million people without tap water

Cross-border: dam GERD

Cross-border: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh

The right of the weaker

Water consumption increases and increases

Global consumption at a glance

The seventy twenty ten split

Freshwater for global nutrition

India draws on its last water reserves

Where has the Aral Sea gone?

The drama of forests and desertification

Soy, the green gold

Possible destruction of the water cycle

Water guzzler industry

Water for the data centers

Water is becoming scarce in Germany

Tesla's Gigafactory in a water conservation area

What are water protection areas?

Less water per person, but more people

Extreme water pollution

Water - victim of all pollution

Many activities lead to water pollution

The consequences for our tap water

From chemical fertilizer, pesticides and greed for money

Pesticides still approved in Europe

Drinking water infrastructures are outdated

Environmental justice for vulnerable groups

3M in Belgium, thermal pollution in the USA

India's drought, fire, Bhopal and Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola - world champion of plastic pollution

The privatization of water supply

Money rush after the blue gold

Tap water: expensive in Oslo, cheap in Beirut

Nestlé's miracle resource water

Nestlé takes Vittel off the market in Germany

Veolia's wastewater billions

Global drama, stock market and stock fever

Which water stocks are worth investing in?

Twelve trillion dollars for water infrastructure

Scarcity due to climate change

Climate change is accelerating

How does the greenhouse effect actually work?

From the water cycle to the heat cycle

Climatic hazards as main driver

Ice melt, rising seas and the island states

Satellites for accurate measurements

Permafrost thaws, glaciers shrink

Maldives and Marshall Islands with artificial islands

Day Zero and heavy rain in many regions

Fatal floods in Europe in 2021

Chile's capital rationed tap water

2022: Warning from the Netherlands

Drought and hardly any food: Africa, India, Pakistan

Iran, the Mediterranean and Syria's Climate Refugees

The Mediterranean in danger

The battle for water hardens

Enough water but power, poverty and inequality

Climate change makes forecasts unreliable

Water as a separating or connecting factor?

River Basin Agreement

Paradigm shift and water nomads

Australia bushfires and its water security

Water War and Defense Budgets

India's need for innovative water technologies

German companies in the (waste) water industry

China's water war

No justice, so no war?

The UN seeks the global solution

SDG6 and water as a human right

The limits of growth

The human right to water

The UN Sustainable Development Goals SDG6

Research and data gaps in the water sector

Include the social-ecological systems

Solutions for large/small countries

The larger the region, the more difficult the solution

Sustainable water management is necessary

Improvements in agriculture

Endless project: The Great Green Wall in Africa

The water crisis in the United States

Mexico and the USA are in the same boat

China's 80,000 dams

China creates an ecological civilization

Norway as the green battery of Europe

Israel's solution with the water in the desert

German turning point and the Netherlands

Measures against drought in the Netherlands

Madeira and the water producing forest

Singapore Water City

Old and new technical solutions

Stone channels in Peru

Sand dams in Kenya

Johads in India

Masada in the Sinai desert

Rainwater harvesting through green buildings

Portable UV water purification system

Portable desalination unit

Water from the air

Water harvesting: ingenious and whimsical ideas

Fight for technology to outer space

Water research and LAWA in New Zealand

Science and environmentally friendly fertilizers

Smart Cities: Drinking Water/Wastewater Treatment

Smart Farming Cambodia and the E-Agriculture

E-Agriculture Platform

Actual state from space

Satellite Assisted Decision Systems

Space for water

Shower like on Mars

What each of us can do

Each of us can save water

Saving drinking water and drinking

Saving tips in the bathroom

Saving water at home

Water saving tips for outdoor

Check costs and repair leaks

Water diplomacy

19 Solutions in the battle for water

Holistic, systematic, multilateral response

About the author

Books by Diplomatic Council

About the Diplomatic Council

Bibliography

Sources and notes

Foreword

With the 2030 Agenda, the global community has set itself 17 ambitious goals – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – for sustainable development. The sixth goal (SDG6) of the United Nations, clean water, provides:

All people should have access to safe and affordable drinking water.

All people should have access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene.

Water quality is to be improved worldwide through recycling and safe reuse.

Water use efficiency is to be substantially increased in all sectors.

Integrated water resources management should be implemented at all levels.

Water-connected ecosystems should be protected and restored.

Humanity is still a long way from achieving these goals. It is all the more important that Claude Piel shows in her new work why it is imperative not to slacken our efforts and to face up to this challenge. Meticulously researched, carefully prepared and excitingly narrated, the work is a reminder to all of us to treat water with care and not to take it for granted.

In her comprehensive work, the author impressively demonstrates that it is by no means only certain regions of the world that are affected, as is often assumed. Rather, clean water poses enormous challenges for the entire world, including the industrialized nations. Let us tackle this task; reading this book - which is admittedly not entirely easy in many places - represents a first and important step on this path.

Hang Nguyen, Secretary General Diplomatic Council

Prologue

The water war is a geopolitical reality today. We need water for survival, for a functioning eco system and for the socioeconomic development of a country. In some countries of the world, thousands and thousands of people die because they have no access to drinking water. Either the infrastructure is not in place, the water is polluted or the soil is too dry. This shortage in some regions of the world is leading many countries to solve the problem in their own way. After all, borders cannot stop rivers. This is one of the causes of conflict.

Power factor water

Some countries have even included power over water resources in their security agenda. In recent decades, however, the number of water agreements between countries has increased. States on the verge of conflict have sought to initiate dialogue on water resources. This is water diplomacy. The key is for governments to recognize: It benefits my country if we cooperate with other countries on water.

With fast economic developments, rapidly increasing populations, and driven by climate change, water-related conflicts and unrest can intensify. With the coronavirus pandemic, the importance of water to people has become even more apparent. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number six addresses this very issue, as access to safe drinking water is a human right.

While billions of people live far from any basic supply, struggle for access to clean drinking water, and ecosystems perish, liquid blue gold slowly and inexorably floods the financial markets. Several countries have shown that major progress can be made in just a few years. At stake are the three pillars of the United Nations: Peace and Security, Human Rights and Development. Because water means not only life, but also the future.

Water knowledge is important

Why is knowledge about water actually important? In the richer countries, we only need to turn on the tap to get clean drinking water immediately. We shower, bathe and clean our houses until the fire department comes to announce from loudspeakers in the middle of summer the message that from now on it is forbidden to carry out these activities. In some places, even in Germany, there was no drinking water at all: with buckets, inhabitants would stand behind a water tanker truck. And this happened in the middle of Europe, not in the Gobi Desert!

There are almost as many books on the subject of water as there are drops of water in the ocean. The aim of this book is not to write a scientific paper or to analyze all the facts as precisely as possible. My work is not based on completeness, but I would like to give the readers food for thought. It is simply a matter of approaching the subject of water seriously and respectfully and considering it as a vital element of our lives that is worth protecting. It is about becoming aware of the conflicts that can arise from a lack of drinking water and what solutions have already been developed.

Because the commercialization of our basic food, water stands in diametral opposition to the human right of access to safe drinking water. Every drop counts, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his message for World Water Day 2020.¹ So does every book and every expansion of our water knowledge.

Wishing you lots of interesting insights as you read!

Claude Piel

Introduction

The light gray mass ripples under the soles of his shoes. From the wide riverbed, it steps over the banks of the East River. Walter looks at his watch. It is shortly before eight on this evening of March 21. He has to get back to the United Nations headquarters. The shiny shadow of the rectangular tower is reflected in the water. This water. The frequent flooding is getting to him. When Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, the United Nations building in New York was difficult to reach. Several subway lines were flooded. Lower-lying parts of Manhattan in particular, as well as Brooklyn and Queens, were at risk. LaGuardia and JFK airports, where ambassadors flying to the United Nations in New York land, were also completely flooded. Not only here, but also in his second adopted home Mainz in Germany or in Myanmar, the Maldives, India...²

It's almost time. Tomorrow, the heads of state and government of 193 nations will gather in the Assembly Hall behind him. Walter works at his country's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. Just before Walter was about to leave his office, his ambassador instructed him to draft his speech for the UN Water Conference on March 22 to mark World Water Day. For this, His Excellency needs an analysis of the struggle for water in the world. Walter is a specialist in international relations. This is not the first time for him, but in this case it will not be a walk in the park, because the situation is changing fast. Since climate change and global warming are accelerating, a new situation report is published almost daily by a highly respected scientific organization.

Will he manage to write the speech in the short time? It is eight o'clock. The speech and analysis must be delivered to His Excellency tomorrow morning at eight o'clock so that the ambassador has enough time to add his own words. He has only twelve hours left; tonight he will stay in the office.

A speech to the United Nations

He briefly wipes the East River water off his shoes and turns around. The main entrance is in front of him. He reaches for his passport, because the United Nations building is on an ex-territorial site, outside the territory of the United States of America. This conference will be the first on water since the 1970s and is expected to be a crucial milestone.

The water and sanitation crisis demands a holistic, systemic and multilateral response, said António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, at the July 2020 virtual launch for the acceleration of the Global Sustainable Development Goals. Water is key to deliver almost all other SDGs, from health to food security, and it is essential for resilience to climate change.

Walter is now in the elevator to his ambassador's office and he feels dizzy. Not from the acceleration of the elevator, but in light of his task. The sixth Sustainable Development Goal - water - is a prerequisite for many, if not all, of the other 16 Sustainable Development Goals. Especially in the areas of health and disease prevention, education, food, agriculture, industry, private consumption, pollution, energy and climate change, and migration. Quite simply, water is also at stake in all areas. Arriving at the office of his country's Permanent Mission, he looks for the latest World Water Reports on World Water Day on March 22 each year.³

On the part of the United Nations, UNESCO is the lead agency. Audrey Azoulays, then Director-General, said in 2021 that water is a blue gold to which more than two billion people do not have direct access. World Water Day has been part of the United Nations agenda since 1993. In 2020, it was about water and climate change; in 2021, it was about water assessment and valuation; and in 2022, it was about groundwater - making the invisible visible. The word water rarely appears in international climate agreements, even though it plays a key role in issues such as food security, energy production, economic development and poverty reduction, Audrey Azoulay continued. Water does not need to be a problem, she said, it can be part of the solution.⁴

Nine billion people by 2040

However, the outlook is worrying. By 2040, the United Nations estimates that there will be nine billion people on earth instead of eight today. By then, global energy demand is expected to increase by more than 25 percent and water demand by more than 50 percent. By 2050, up to 5.7 billion people could spend at least one month a year living in areas where water is scarce. Extreme weather caused more than 90 percent of major disasters in the last decade. At the same time, conflicts over water resources don't seem to stop. The water issue is gradually replacing the oil issue.⁵

In India and Iran, severe water shortages have led to an increase in conflicts within these countries in recent years. Between Russia and Ukraine, the situation has been worsening since 2014, and it has been spreading to water infrastructure since the war began in 2022. Computerized water systems are increasingly the victims of cyberattacks that threaten water security, quality, and reliability. Globally, social prosperity and economic development depend heavily on water. Herein lie the three greatest challenges for water management in the 21st century. These are the preservation of ecosystems, the provision of drinking water for people, and sufficient water for agriculture.⁶

Actions speak louder than words

Solutions are definitely on the horizon. Climate-resilient water supply and sanitation could save the lives of more than 360,000 babies every year. If we limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, we could reduce climate-related water stress by up to 50 percent. That would reduce tensions and stop potential wars from starting. ⁷

Would. Could. Now Walter absolutely has to give his analysis a structured direction, because he can't go on like this. There are too many alarming facts, and his ambassador needs answers. First, he will turn his attention to the various conflicts surrounding water, because water has often been a reason to gather, but also to fight over it. In the next step, he will look for the causes of these conflicts. Many lie in the scarcity itself, but mainly in access to water and infrastructure. Then it is about the shortage caused by the high global consumption, the pollution and the handling of this valuable commodity by many corporations characterized by greed for profit. Thus, the reasons for climate change and the increased water stress we are experiencing today also become clear. This results in the danger of new water struggles: the challenge of this century.

What interests his ambassador most are solutions. First, he looks for them at the global level, at the level of the United Nations with the support of the 193 states and the various organizations. Then he looks for countries that have solved the problem in their own way. In doing so, he finds both old and new technologies that could help solve our drinking water problem. Moreover, each of us is in a position to consider water as our most precious resource. Time is racing, there are only a few hours left until the General Assembly. Walter immediately gets to work.

A scarce and essential commodity

The next wars in the Middle East will be fought over water, warned Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a former secretary-general of the United Nations, back in 1985.⁸ His prediction has not yet come true, but the first thing for Walter is to understand what water wars actually are. Water war is a term for all the problems humanity faces when it comes to water resources. It describes the conflicts that countries, states or groups experience regarding water scarcity. Water scarcity has most often led to conflicts at the local and regional level. Thus, if one considers water as a limited resource, water conflicts arise because either the demand for water resources and drinking water exceeds the supply, because control over access and allocation of water may be contested, or because water management institutions are weak or absent altogether.⁹

Elements of a water crisis can put the affected parties under such pressure that it leads to diplomatic tensions or, in the worst case, to an open conflict. Reasons for conflict include violence, i.e., injuries or deaths, threats of violence including verbal threats, military maneuvers, and demonstrations of power. Walter does not want to include unintended or incidental adverse impacts on populations or communities that occur in the context of water management decisions. This includes, for example, people displaced by dam construction or exposed to the effects of extreme events such as floods or droughts. He considers this to be increased water stress.¹⁰

Three types of conflicts over water

There are three types of water-related conflicts, which can be categorized as follows. First, water is the trigger of violence or the cause of conflict due to water scarcity, a dispute over control of water, or water systems. Water conflicts can also arise from disrupted economic access to water, through profiteering or increased price, or when physical access to water is prevented.¹¹

Second, water can be used as a weapon or tool in violent conflicts. For example, armed groups in the Libyan capital Tripoli cut off the population from water by attacking water pumping stations, or Israeli settlers flooded Palestinian olive groves with sewage in 2019.

Third, water resources or water systems are often the bone of contention in conflicts and become the target of violence, intentionally or accidentally. Yemen's civilian water infrastructure was repeatedly attacked during the war there. Israeli settlers and military forces have reportedly destroyed a variety of Palestinian agricultural irrigation systems, water tanks, and water sources. Egyptian hackers launched a cyberattack on Ethiopian water systems in June 2020 in anger over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Moreover, water can trigger conflict when access or control is disputed. This was the case with demonstrations and unrest in Iran in 2019, 2020, and 2021, over the detour of water from the Zayanderud River in the city of Isfahan, or over access to irrigation water in India and Pakistan during severe droughts.

Human history is riddled with examples of the use of water as an instrument or target in conflicts.¹² Walter tries to remember a few. The earliest known example of a real interstate conflict over water occurs between 2500 and 2350 BC, between the Sumerian city-states of Umma and Lagash in Mesopotamia, now Iraq. The issue was the maintenance and expansion of the irrigation system, as crops depended on it. Umma was located further upstream on the Tigris River and could thus divert large amounts of water through canals into its own land. This led to conflict.

Another early conflict over water took place in 596 BC, when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed part of the aqueduct that supplied the city of Tyre to put an end to an endless siege. Or in 1503, during the battle between Florence and Pisa, in which Leonardo da Vinci and Machiavelli tried to divert the course of the Arno to cut off Pisa from its access to the sea. In a later water conflict in 1938, Chiang Kai-shek, the then leader of China, ordered the destruction of dikes on part of the Yellow River in China to flood areas threatened by the Japanese army.

From 1939 to 1945, power plant dams were bombed and were considered strategic targets. In Vietnam in the 1960s, many dikes were targets of bombing; between two and three million people are estimated to have drowned or starved to death as a result of these attacks. In 1999, water points and wells in Kosovo were contaminated by Serbs. That same year, a bomb blast destroyed the main pipeline in Lusaka, Zambia, depriving its three million inhabitants of water. Since the end of the 20th century, water resources and facilities have been under increasing threat, particularly in Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East.¹³

Walter continues his researches and finds the book Guerre et eau by Franck Galland published by Robert Laffont.¹⁴ Examples of wars in which water plays a role exist from the First World War. At that time, water was not included in the military maneuvers of the war from 1914 to 1918. From the introduction of the Army Water Service on the Western Front, after the human disaster of the first months of 1914 when the French Army could not benefit from an adequate water supply to the Eastern Front, where the British of the Egyptian Expeditionary Corps were able to turn a shortage into an advantage by supplying Jerusalem with water. In the liberation of the Holy City from the Ottoman yoke after only six months, Walter discovers the relevance of a scheme in which hydraulic infrastructure becomes factors of peace and stability.

The book cites World War II as another example of a war in which water is relevant. It is about how water is integrated into military maneuvers. Lessons are learned from World War I, and French forces in 1940 are prepared for a water supply. The book also describes war in the desert and the importance of water management, with the German African corps benefiting over British forces. Finally, Walter finds documentation of the long and careful preparation for the Normandy landings, ranging from knowledge of available water resources, soils and groundwater thanks to the support of the Resistance, to the intervention of a special intelligence unit, Special Operations Executive.¹⁵

Today, there are more modern forms of water conflicts. After 1945, water became the target of destruction in many modern asymmetric conflicts, up to and including ISIS occupying dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Walter finds other techniques of subversive warfare, such as poisoning wells, flooding, or occupying dams. Water was also involved in the revolutionary wars in Vietnam, the civil wars of 1980 to 1990 in Lebanon, the war in the former Yugoslavia, up to the conflicts of the Arab Spring in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. Water has played an essential role as a vital resource, an object, or a weapon of mass destruction in complete disregard of the Geneva Conventions. It could also be about terrorist threats to drinking water systems, which Walter fortunately does not encounter in his research.

Today, it is more about a war or fight for water. It is about the recent political and diplomatic initiatives aimed at addressing issues and challenges related to the protection of water infrastructure in the United Nations Security Council. The first time in the history of this institution and an urgent concern. Finally, there is a need to better prepare armies to intervene in areas of high instability and lack of water