Water and Armed Conflict
Publisher: Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment: Challenges, Preventions, and Preventative Measures
Author(s): Barry S. Levy
Date: 2019
Topics: Cooperation, Dispute Resolution/Mediation, Livelihoods, Renewable Resources
The challenge of securing safe and plentiful water for all is one of the most daunting challenges faced by the world today… Too often, where we need water, we find guns instead. Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon.
- Ban Ki-moon
Former Secretary General of the United Nations at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, 2008
The global challenges to ensure availability and accessibility of water are daunting. This chapter explores these challenges in the context of preventing armed conflict over water and protecting access to water as a basic human right.