Suhaly Bautista Professor Kamal New York University October 19, 2009 NYUUNSBPreliminary Outline
THE POTENTIAL FOR FUTURE CONFLICTS OVER WATER: PRELIMINARY OUTLINE THESIS This report will prove the potential for inevitable future conflicts over water in various regions of the world, discuss the implications of this crisis on the human population and identify the fundamental role of the United Nations in confronting this international emergency. BASIC FACTS/BACKGROUND • Explain the importance of water to life (single most important element) • Prove WHY we have a water shortage in the world in the first place (there are 261 international water basins in the world shared by 6.5 billion people) • Statistics: freshwater resources, aquifers, glacial melt, global water usage (Access: About 1.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water) • The role of population growth and climate change in the shortage of water (supply vs. demand) • Demonstrate the inevitability of water wars across regions (shared rivers) THREE EXAMPLES OF GLOBAL WATER CRISIS • India and Pakistan (Indus Waters Treaty) • Jordan (Israel, Jordan, Syria) • Mexico or the Colorado River Basin NEAR WATER WARS • The Ganges Dispute between Bangladesh and India • TigrisEuphrates river (Turkey, Syria, Iraq) • Jordan River, Red SeaDead Sea crisis THE POLITICS OF WATER (HYDROPOLITICS) • Water as a basic universal human right: highlight countryspecific constitutions • Water treaties (benefits and shortcomings) • Transboundary water issues (U.S. and Canda and the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty) • The IsraelJordan Peace Treaty dictates the amount of water to which each nation is entitled • World Water Forum (held every three years) • South Africa, 1996 constitution: “sufficient clean water” as a basic right • U.S.: Clean Water Act (Bush Administration NUMBER OF CONFLICTS EXPECTED TO RISE • Population increasing while water levels remain the same the issue of balance • Water can be recycled: water cycle in light of our rate of usage • Effects of water shortages on food and health • Emergencies (examples: New Orleans, Indonesia) • Environmentally displaced refugees THE ROLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS • UN Convention on the NonNavigational Uses of International Watercourses, 1997 • WHO: the right to water • Taking innovative adaptations and streamlining them (purification straws, water barrels, water pumps…) • Steps in the right direction (i.e. World Water Day)
CONCLUSION • Access and allocation (which people do not have water and why) graph • What we are NOT doing collectively (corporations, misuse, pollution, dams, bottled water…) • Adaptation methods that are working • What is left to be done and where to start