Preventing Water Conflict through Dialogue

May 2, 2022 | Ken Conca
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When considering the potential effects of “backdraft” on climate change responses, the question of the world’s water future may be the most salient of all—especially as we examine water supplies and freshwater ecosystem health. Large changes are coming to how we store, use, and price water, as well as in how we mitigate environmental harm and adapt to water-related stresses such as drought and flooding. What will those changes look like over the next thirty or forty years?

If done properly, sensible adjustments around storing water, pricing water, recycling water, and designing landscapes for flood risk could make communities more climate- and water-resilient. They could also help to forestall the numerous conflict risks around water—the dangers of which, though sometimes simplified and overstated, are real enough.

One key to addressing these challenges is to build out more effective mechanisms for dispute resolution. The high stakes make water ripe for social conflict, but conflict management remains the weak link in water governance. Even where arrangements have been formalized, they may be designed to resolve the problems of an earlier era.

Most existing international river-basin commissions, for example, were created in a historical period when allocation of water supplies and (perhaps) pollution control were the primary considerations. These bodies function on principles  closer to contractual arrangements, with largely fixed terms and conditions, than  joint schemes for active management. They may create predictability, but they often lack the flexibility to adjust to changing circumstances.