Scotland as a hydro-nation: global perspective: challenges and opportunities

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Scotland as a Hydro-NationGlobal Perspective: Challenges & Opportunities

Institute of WaterAutumn Seminar16 -17 Sept | Kincardine

16 Sept 2011 Prof Patricia Wouters

IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science | under the auspices of UNESCO Slide | 2

1. Scotland as a Hydro-Nation2. The global water challenge3. Scotland’s contribution: Hydro-diplomacy

Scotland as a Hydro-Nation


Scotland's challenge, as a water abundant nation, is to find ways of using its water resource for economic gain from those who can pay, and for humanitarian assistance for those who need help. Scotland could greatly enhance its international branding and reputation if it were seen to be at the forefront of this field…




The World's First ‘Hydro-economy'

Hydro-diplomacy


The Global Water Challenge

No development without water

1.2 billion without safe drinking water and2.4 billion without sanitation

wideningwater gap

Only a fractionreadily available

1.4 billion km3 ofwater on Earth

Growing issues of availability, access, and conflicts-of-use


Availability and Access issues: Too little…


Availability and Access issues: too much


Conflicts-of-use - Water security challenges

BBC News


Global water security threat

C. J. Vörösmarty et al., 'Global Threats to Human Water Security and River Biodiversity', 467 Nature (2010) 7315, 555.

• Water Security – ‘the state of having secure access to water; the assured freedom from poverty of, or want for, water for life.’[P. Wouters, 2005]

• 80% of population exposed to high levels of threat to water security…


Conflicts-of-use over water?

Hydro-diplomacy?


“Armed forces are put on standby to tackle threat of wars over water” –

Across the world, they are coming: the water wars. From Israel to India, from Turkey to Botswana, arguments are going on over disputed water supplies that may soon burst into open conflict.”

Mr Reid signalled Britain's armed forces would have to be prepared to tackle conflicts over dwindling resources.

Military planners have already started considering the potential impact of global warming for Britain's armed forces over the next 20 to 30 years.

(The Independent - 28 /02/2006)

The world faces a future of “water wars”, unless action is taken to prevent international water shortages and sanitation issues escalating into conflicts, Gareth Thomas, the International Development Minister (March 2010)

The UK - ready for global water wars?


By neglecting the interconnectivityof water issues between Central and South Asia, the U.S. approachcould exacerbate regional tensions.

US Senate Report – Avoiding Water Wars (Feb 2011)

http://xbrmqw.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pczi-6n-VlUCNMppLVwh1lty02my46TxB0BUYCTKq0wgYwNH0ZMs9_cu4jzS24vu5j7a8Mm4vNQQRSnJj2D2QDw/003_Central%20Asia%20Map.jpg


International Waters across Asia

Himalayan “Water Towers”- Large population; land-mass with 60+ transboundary waters; massive urban centres


Competition+ over the Nile

New York Times - When the Nile Runs DryLester R. Brown (1 June 2011)

“Affluent countries like Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China and India have descended on fertile plains across the African continent, acquiring huge tracts of land to produce wheat, rice and corn for consumption back home. .. Growing water demand, driven by population growth and foreign land and water acquisitions, are straining the Nile’s natural limits. ”


Dr. Mufid Shahab, Egypt’s Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs say that “Egypt’s water security and its historical rights to the water of the River Nile is a matter of life and death that cannot be ignored.”Crisis on the NileOsman Mirghani (2010)

Regional water security -- the Nile


… the Millennium Dam will not only provide benefits to Ethiopia. It will also offer mutually beneficial opportunities to Sudan and to Egypt. Indeed, one might expect these countries to be prepared to share the cost in proportion to the gains that each state will derive.” … to exercise our rights to use our own rivers is in order to fight poverty in our own country. It shows no malice to any of our neighbors. Among the concerns we factored in when we made the decision to build the Nile Dam with our own resources, was to avoid any negative consequences for our neighbors and indeed to offer positive benefits for all of them.Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia (April 2011)

Regional water security -- the Nile


The water problem is broad and systemic. Our work to deal with it must be so as well. The problem is that we have no coordinated global management authority for water in the UN system or the world at large. (Ban Ki-Moon, UN Sec.Gen)

Transboundary cooperation is therefore necessary to prevent negative impacts of unilateral measures …. This makes transboundary water resources management one of the most important challenges today and in the years to come. (UN ECE, 2009)

Global Water Challenge: Governance


Global Context = The Law of Nations

“to maintain international peace and security … and ... the fundamental freedoms of all … “

UN Charter


International Water Law / Law of Nations

Law of nations

Rule of lawWater security Hydro-

solidarity

Transboundary waters

Hydro-diplomacy


Role of International Law

International law is clearly much more than a simple set of rules. It is a culture in the broadest sense in that it constitutes a method of communicating claims, counter-claims, expectations and anticipations as well as providing a framework for assessing and prioritising such demands. (Shaw, 2003 )


" If the daunting challenges now facing the world are to be overcome, it must be in important part through the medium of rules, internationally agreed, internationally implemented and, if necessary, internationally enforced. That is what the rule of law requires in the international order. ”Lord Bingham The Rule of Law (2010)

Role of Law = Rule of Law


Rule of law as foundation for a fair society

Rule of Law as foundation for: 1. good governance 2. accountability3. certainty 4. legality

As core conditions for an effective economy and a fair society.


The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperationBertrand Russell

Addressing Water Security: Dynamic Cooperation


“Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off. ”Franklin D Roosevelt

General obligation to cooperate - Watercourse States shall cooperate on the basis of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, mutual benefit and good faith in order to attain optimal utilization and adequate protection of an international watercourse (Art. 8, UNWC)

Dynamic Cooperation: Duty to cooperate


Southern Africa Water - Working Together On River Management• Angola - irrigation for

development, • Namibia - clean drinking

water & sanitation• Botswana - Okavango

Delta for tourism.

Cooperation on the Okavango (March 2011)


Dynamic Cooperation: state practice

Asia, Europe march ever closerBy Claire Rosemberg (AFP) – 7 June 2011

GODOLLO, Hungary — From nuclear safety to climate change and growth, 46 nations from Asia and Europe wound up two days of talks Tuesday pledging to tighten the bonds between 60 per cent of the planet's people. .. "We are all inter-dependent," said Hungary's Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi. "All parties agreed on the deepening of this cooperation” … "Food, water, energy and climate security are interconnected and inseparable. These four elements underpin global security, prosperity and equity.”(ASEM groups the EU, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Mongolia, Australia, New Zealand and Russia -- four billion people representing over 60 per cent of world trade.)


• We should view every regional watershed or aquifer as an opportunity for stronger international cooperation.

• Access to reliable supplies of clean water is a matter of human security. It’s also a matter of national security.

• There could be huge political and economic benefits from regional water diplomacy.

• Water is actually a test case for preventive diplomacy.

5 streams of action1. Capacity development (local,

national, regional)2. Elevate diplomatic efforts and

we need to better coordinate them

3. Mobilizing financial support4. Harness the power of science

and technology5. Broadening the scope of our

partnerships

Dynamic Cooperation: USA foreign policy


International water security framework

Human

National

Regional

Int’l / Global

Politi

cal

Econ

omic

Soci

etal

Envi

ronm

enta

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Scal

e

Disciplinary Interface


Water Security: Legal Analytical Framework

Availability

Access

Addressing Conflicts-of-use

WSAF:1. Legal

framework2. Informed by

science3. Dynamic

What?

Who?Why?


Competing Security Challenges| the FEW Nexus1 bn suffer from hunger

2.4 bn lack access toimproved sanitation

0.9 bn lack access to safe water

1.5 bn without accessto electricity

2.5 bn without access to modern forms of energy

30-50% in demand by 2030

40% in demand by 2030

40% in demand by 2030


Water | Competing (in)securitiesWater Security: “the availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks to people, environment and economies” [Grey and Sadoff 2007]

Food Security: “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life” [WHO 1996]

Energy Security: “the uninterrupted physical availability [of energy] at a price which is affordable, while respecting environment concerns” [IEA 2011]

Water

WaterSecurity

FoodSecurity

EnergySecurity


Chaos by connection?

Interdependenciesand linkages between water and everything else• Sustainable

solutions require coordinated interdisciplinary response

• Water law as a platform for cooperation.

Risk Response Network of the World Economic Forum, Global Risks 2011 : Sixth Edn (World Economic Forum 2011) at 2.


Rule of law: unlocking competing securities

Legal instruments: platforms for transparency, equity and fairness between competing securities

• Legal frameworks• Benefit-sharing (e.g. SADC)• Institutional mechanisms for

water allocation between competing sectors (e.g. soya bean irrigation vs. hydropower dams in Madhya-Pradesh, India)

Law

WaterSecuri

ty

FoodSecuri

ty

Energy

Security


Scotland as Hydro-Nation: Potential

• Good governance • Accountability• Certainty • Legality

Rule of Law

10/04/2023 Governing Board Meeting 35

Platform for developing a new

Generation of Local Water Leaders


Scotland: connecting the dots

Tweed Basin as HELP demonstration basin

UNESCO HELP basins worldwide network

10/04/2023 Governing Board Meeting 37

Platform for developing a new generation of Local Water Leaders

Scotland: Connecting with the world


Building Hydro-diplomacy - capacity tower

Water security

Regional & Global

National Capacity

Local Water Leaders Scotland: sharing knowledge & expertise in water


Building Hydro-diplomacy: Dundee 2011


Building Hydro-diplomacy: Dundee 2010



Thank you!

www.dundee.ac.uk/water

www.glasgow2015.org

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/water

Scotland as a hydro-nation: global perspective: challenges and opportunities

Technology

water problem

water acquisitions

global water wars

regional water security

egypts water security

human water security

international water

global water security