Concluding Post - 'Water the Next Oil?'

Concluding Post - 'Water the Next Oil?'

 We commenced this blog by questioning Serageldins claim ‘is water the next oil?’ and have now explored the biopolitical, geopolitical, international and local dimensions of both surface and groundwater resources. We know oil, the fuel of modern consumptive societies, has fuelled major conflicts globally. The concept of the ‘resource curse’ helps to explain oil’s fuelling of conflict – but do nations war over water? As discussed in the first blog post, water is both a geopolitical and biopolitical issue on the African continent. The fundamentality of the resource to the sustenance and development of societies and it’s increasing scarcity due to climatic change, population growth, expanding agricultural demands etc. present’s the opportunity of conflict. Though water, the sustenance of life, instead presents opportunity for cooperation. As I have illustrated within my blog posts, water at all scales (from local to international) and water of all forms (from surface to groundwater) facilitates cooperation. Water must be viewed in this holistic sense – hydrological systems are interconnected and unsustainable use of one water resource will have negative knock on effects to other riparian’s. Water is essential to ensure improved livelihoods across Africa from food security to sanitation and water does not value borders so cannot be isolated or secured. Nation’s know they must cooperate as illustrated by example’s such as the Nile Basin Initiative and the Joint authority on the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System. Though tensions may arise over shared water resources – the essentiality of water will ensure cooperation. Cooperation over water should therefore negate conflict - from 'Hydropolitics' to 'Hydro-Cooperation'. Water is therefore contrary to oil – oil fuels conflict as a strategic resource which fuels consumptive societies, water on the other hand is an essential resource which sustains societies. We have relied on water for the entirety of our existence and will rely on water for the rest of our existence – and that existence is reliant on cooperation.The Water Planet
 The 'Water Planet' - Source


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'However far the stream flows it never forgets it source' - Case study of conflict and cooperation within the Nile basin

Image
The Father of African Rivers The Nile is arguably the most infamous river on our planet, its determined flow originates just south of the equator making it's monumental 4,132 mile journey northward fanning out into the Mediterranean.  The river has for millennia been a central feature of life in North Eastern Africa nurturing some of humanities earliest and most influential civilizations. Today the river's influence is clearly evidenced from satellite imagery as it injects a stroke of luscious green into a sea of sand as it moves northward undeterred by the sheer size of the Sahara.  Figure 1 - Satellite Imagery of the Nile in Egypt - Source The Nile is an 'international river' with it's drainage basin encompassing 11 countries (Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Republic of Sudan and Egypt), or about 3 million square Kilometres thus covering about 10% of the African continent ( K
Read more

The 'Next Oil' - Hydropolitics in Africa an Introductory Blog

Image
The 'Next Oil' - Hydropolitics in Africa The global water crisis is one of the world's most pressing issues and has been greatly intensified by a combination of rapidly growing global population coupled with intensified climatic change which has put great strain on water resources globally. In 1995 World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin stated 'If the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water' ( Serageldin 1995 ). We are comfortably into the century in which Serageldins prediction rests and this prediction appears increasingly accurate as we are faced with increased water scarcity coupled with ever increasing demand globally. Water the next oil? Illustration by Andrea Ucini - Source Though, unlike oil, water exists as a fundamental and basic resource for human life, every living thing on the planet needs water. Water fuels society, the economy, the environment and without it our home, the blue marble
Read more

Plumbing the Sahara - The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System

Image
Plumbing the Sahara - The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) is the apex African aquifer, it is the world's largest aquifer system covering approximately 2.2 million Km 2 ( Alker 2008 ). The extensive aquifer extends quietly beneath the surface of North East Africa stretching from the Tibesti mountains in the central Sahara to the Red Sea in the East, from the Lake Chad Basin in the south to Mediterranean sea in the north. This colossal aquifer lay silently below the Sahara for millennia with the main bulk of the water dating back to between 100,000 - 1 million years ago whilst the deepest water resources date back to as far as 2 million years ago ( Zekster and Everett 2004:221-222 ). The system underlies 4 large nations which harbour a population of over 136 million ( IAEA 2011 ) the aforementioned nations are; Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad. The system was discovered in 1953 by chance as Libya searched for 'black gold' within
Read more