{"id":2461,"date":"2013-01-31T16:03:36","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T11:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=2461"},"modified":"2013-01-31T16:05:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T11:05:37","slug":"hydro-diplomacy-needed-to-avert-arab-water-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=2461","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHydro-diplomacy\u201d needed to avert Arab water wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"agua-africa\"<\/a>The United Nations should promote \u201chydro-diplomacy\u201d to defuse any tensions over water in regions like the Middle East and North Africa where scarce supplies have the potential to spark future conflicts.<\/p>\n

They said the U.N. Security Council should work out ways to bolster cooperation over water in shared lakes or rivers, from the Mekong to the Nile, that are likely to come under pressure from a rising world population and climate change. The Middle East and North Africa are the regions most at risk of conflict over scarce water supplies, they said, but history shows \u201cwater wars\u201d are very rare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that water is an issue that would be a appropriate for the U.N. Security Council,\u201d Zafar Adeel, chair of UN-Water, told Reuters ahead of a meeting of experts in Canada this week to discuss water and security.<\/p>\n

U.N. studies project that 30 nations will be \u201cwater scarce\u201d in 2025, up from 20 in 1990. Eighteen of them are in the Middle East and North Africa, with Libya and Egypt among those added to the 1990 list that includes Israel and Somalia.<\/p>\n

\"agua-africa2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Water scarcity is when each person has access to 1,000 or fewer cubic meters of water a year.<\/p>\n

UN-Water coordinates water-related activities of all U.N. agencies. March 22 is \u201cWorld Water Day\u201d in the U.N. calendar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world\u2019s top ranked water conflict hotspot is the Arab region, comprised of the Middle East and North Africa,\u201d according to a statement about the March 21-23 talks in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Adeel said the U.N. should try to promote past traditions of rivals cooperating over supplies in a form of \u201chydro-diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCLEAR ADVANTAGES\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a whole history of cases where\u2026even countries at war have used water almost as a neutralizing element,\u201d he said. India and Pakistan, for instance, cooperated to share supplies in the Indus River even during conflicts in 1965 and 1971.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are clear advantages in cooperation,\u201d former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who will be a co-chair of the meeting in Toronto, told Reuters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater will become an ever more important issue,\u201d he said, adding that the talks would look at cases such as the River Jordan, with rival demands by Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and Syrians.<\/p>\n

Experts say the only documented case of a \u201cwater war\u201d was about 4,500 years ago when the city-states of Lagash and Umma went to war in the Tigris-Eurphrates basin.<\/p>\n

Apart from that example, \u201cwater has never been the principal cause of two states going to war,\u201d Fabrice Renaud, of the U.N. University\u2019s Institute on the Environment and Human Security, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Source: http:\/\/www.bluechannel24.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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