The Water Wars within: Preventing Subnational Water Conflicts

May 30, 2018 | Scott Moore
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In 1995, World Bank official Ismail Serageldin warned that “the wars of the next century will be fought over water—unless we change our approach to managing this precious and vital resource.” Since then, the world’s water resources have come under ever-greater strain. At the same time, institutional frameworks for managing water resources remain weak throughout most of the globe. Only about a quarter of the world’s international river basins have adequate governance arrangements to prevent and resolve conflicts. Does this mean that we can expect the 21^st century to be wracked by water wars?

The short answer is no: Few (if any) countries have actually gone to war over water in recorded history. But the longer answer is maybe: Water has played a clear role in many forms of conflict within nations, including violent skirmishes between villages in Guatemala, riots between ethnic groups in India, and legal disputes between U.S. states. In Scott Moore's new book, Subnational Hydropolitics, he finds that water conflicts within countries break out because shared water resources are often linked to identity politics—but that these conflicts can be resolved by building platforms for cooperative decision-making among water users.