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FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT WATER AND PEACE Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment. In light of this fact, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Professor Wangari Maathai, who stands at the front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic and cultural development in Africa and particularly in Kenya. She concluded her Nobel lecture with these words: 'Today, [...] the stream has dried up, women walk long distances for water, which is not always clean, and children will never know what they have lost. The challenge is to […] give back to our children a world of beauty and wonder'. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has identified more than 3,600 treaties relating to international water resources dating from AD 805 to 1984, the majority of which relate to some aspect of navigation. In the last 50 years, 200 water-related treaties were negotiated and signed. An empirical study of water conflict and cooperation, completed in 2001 at Oregon State University (Estados Unidos), documents a total of 1,831 interactions, both conflictive and cooperative, between two or more nations over water during the past 50 years. The total number of water-related events between nations, are weighted towards cooperation: 507 conflict-related events, versus 1,228 cooperative ones, implying that violence over water is not strategically rational, effective or economically viable. Water was the last and most contentious issue resolved in negotiations over a 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan and was relegated to ‘final status’ negotiations – along with other difficult issues, such as Jerusalem and Palestinian– between Israel and the Palestine. The Water Court, operating in the city of Valencia, Spain has been in existence at least since the 10th century. This court is a good example of a local initiative for peacefully resolving conflicts. It is composed of farmers, who hear disputes over irrigation waters and make judgements on the spot conducting all proceedings orally.
Information from: Source: UNESCO Water Portal, September 2005
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