World Water Day 2024: When water creates peace or sparks conflict

The theme of World Water Day this year is 'Water for Peace', a call to utilise water as a means to foster peace and resolve conflicts. Transboundary waters account for 60 per cent of the world's freshwater flows, covering nearly half of the Earth's land surface. More than three billion people depend on water that originates outside their national boundaries, yet just twenty-four countries have cooperation agreements in place on their shared water resources. When water is scarce or polluted, or people have unequal access, tensions can rise between communities and countries

By Madhu Kapparath

Published: Mar 22, 2024 07:49:23 PM IST

Updated: Mar 22, 2024 08:24:11 PM IST

Image: Li Lin/CNS/VCG via Getty Images

An aerial view of a section of the Yarlung Tsangpo ( Brahmaputra) river in Medog County, Nyingchi, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. In November 2020, China announced plans for hydropower construction on the section of the Brahmaputra closest to India, triggering strong responses from the Indian side. Of greatest concern to India are reports of Chinese plans to build a mega-dam just before the Brahmaputra enters India.

Image: CCTV / AFP

This video frame grab taken from footage recorded in mid-June 2020 shows Indian soldiers crossing a river during an incident where Chinese and Indian troops clashed in the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan River valley in the Karakoram Mountains in the Himalayas. There were also reports that in the aftermath of the border clashes, China has blocked the flow of the Galwan River, which crosses from the disputed Chinese-administered Aksai Chin region into the Ladakh region in India. The conflation of the China–India territorial disputes exacerbates water as a source of conflict between them.

Image: Bruno Kelly / Reuters

Combined armies of Brazil, Peru and Colombia patrol the Jurua River, a part of the vast Amazonas, to combat illegal logging and drug trafficking at the triple border in Porto Walter, Acre state, Brazil. South America—Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay—has the largest proportion of international borders made up of rivers.

Also read: Anand Malligavad: India's 'lake man' cleans up critical water supplies

Image: Frank Bienewald/LightRocket via Getty Images

A Cambodian woman ferries goods and her child in Kampong Chhnang. The countries that constitute the Lower Mekong—Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand—have been excellent examples of cooperation in sharing rivers even while they were at war.

Image: Amanuel SILESHI / AFP

This is a general view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Guba, Ethiopia. Ethiopia's massive hydroelectric dam project on a tributary of the Nile near the Ethiopian-Sudanese border has raised regional tensions, notably with Egypt, which depends on the vast river for ninety-seven percent of its water supply. Negotiations involving Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt over the GERD exemplify the difficulties of effectively managing shared water resources. Downstream nations like Egypt are particularly concerned about the impact on their water supply.

Also read: India and the urgency of water crisis

Image: Inna Varenytsia / Reuters

An aerial view shows a flooded area after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached amid Russia's attack on Ukraine in Kherson, Ukraine, on June 10, 2023. An explosion ripped apart the dam in Ukraine, unleashing floods that killed 58 people, devastated the landscape along the Dnipro River and cut off water to productive farmland. The dam's destruction was one in a series of attacks on water infrastructure that occurred during the Russia-Ukraine war, which Ukrainian officials and the European Parliament blame on Russia, even though the structure was under Russian control.

Image: JANEK SKARZYNSKI / AFP

A local jogs along the partially frozen Vistula River in the Polish capital, Warsaw. Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine—all parties to the Water Convention—share the Vistula River Basin. The basin covers 193,960 km, most of which is in Poland. As pollution generated by countries upstream affected the water quality in Poland, Polish authorities have been working with their counterparts in Belarus and Ukraine for over 20 years to improve water quality in the Vistula.

Also read: World Water Week: On the importance of balancing the water budget

Image: Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP

Young Afghans gather at Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, where the Arghandab River merges into the Helmand River. On the Iran-Afghanistan border, a conflict centring on water from the Helmand River boiled over into deadly clashes between the two countries' forces.

Image: Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo arrive at the Summit of Heads of State and Governments of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) in Abuja, Nigeria, in late 2015. Amidst threats from the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, the Commission was able to not only manage shared waters but also promote regional integration, peace, security and development. Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Algeria share Lake Chad Basin.

Also read: World Environment Day 2023: Need to think beyond carbon footprint, to plastic and water footprint?

Image: Cesar Olmedo / Reuters

Andrea Gomez from the indigenous community Mby'a Guarani, which hunts and fishes on the Parana River, fills water from the river at Parque Nacional Moises Bertoni, Presidente Franco, Paraguay. When the mighty Paraná River—South America's second-largest—almost dried up in 2021, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina were able to share the limited water supplies peacefully and sustainably. Indigenous people have been involved in violent conflicts over water and land protection because they don't want a dam built and their forests and rivers to be destroyed.