Here is a possible 10 mark response to the question:
The need for water can create significant tension and conflict for several key reasons:
Firstly, water is essential for life - it is needed for drinking, sanitation, agriculture and many other daily activities. Where water supplies are limited or uncertain, this puts pressure on access to the resource. Populations and their needs are growing, but water supplies are finite. This mismatch between demand and supply lays the foundations for potential disputes.
Secondly, many of the world's major river basins and aquifers cross international borders, so water resources are often shared between countries. This can make management and allocation extremely challenging. Upstream countries may control flows downstream, and different priorities
1. Name the country
1. Columbia
2. Ecuador
3. Brazil
4. Chile
5. Argentina
1
3
2
4
5
2. When I was away - Water supply problems
How do irrigation programmes effect human
welfare and economic growth?
3. Water Supply Problems
• Secure water supplies are essential to life and
economic growth.
• It supports irrigation, food production and
energy generation.
• However water supplies need to be carefully
managed to prevent negative impacts on
human welfare and economic growth
6. Trans-boundary issues
• UK annual
rainfall
• Imagine what
would happen if
the UK split into
a eastern and
western half?
7. Water Conflicts
• When demand for water overtakes supply there
is the potential for conflict.
• Competing demands for irrigation, power
generation, domestic use, recreation and
conservation can also create tension both
between and within countries.
• Conflict is more likely in developing nations
where water is vital to feed struggling growing
populations and promote industrial development.
8. Example: USA – inter-regional issues
Question of miss-match between
precipitation and usage
1 2
1 2
9. Water Conflicts
• The UN estimate that there is potential for
over 300 water conflicts around the world, as
rivers, lakes and aquifers struggle to provide
sufficient supplies for neighbouring countries.
• Politicians and map makers have not helped as
boundaries and boarders do not fit with river
catchments.
10. Increasing conflict in transboundary hotspots
The Murray / Darling basins. Salinisation of farmland,
drought – area produces three-quarters of Australia's
irrigated crops.
Mexico City is now at serious risk of running out of clean
water. 40% of the city's water is lost through leaky pipes
built at the turn of the century.
The Zambezi river basin in southern Africa is one of the most
overused river systems in the world.
Mali is dependent on the river Niger, which flows from
Guinea through Mali to Nigeria. Long stretches of the river
are now facing environmental catastrophe as a result of
pollution.
Catalonia, where authorities are pressing for the
construction of a pipeline to divert water from the Rhone in
France to Barcelona, plus diversion of the Ebro to the south
Yellow River - All three rivers feeding China's Northern Plain
are severely polluted, damaging health and limiting
irrigation.
The Ganges is so depleted that the Sundarban wetlands and
mangrove forests of Bangladesh are seriously threatened.
Between 1962 and 1994, the level of the Aral Sea fell by 16
metres.
Major tensions over the River Jordan and River Litani and
the aquifers under Israel and Palestine
Dams building along the Euphrates and Tigris is a source of
conflict in the Middle East.
11.
12. Trans-boundary water Conflicts
• Approximately 40% of the world’s population
lives in river and lake catchments that fall
across two or more countries, and over 90 %
live in countries that share basins.
• About 2 billion people worldwide depend on
groundwater, which includes approximately
300 trans boundary aquifer systems.
13. Trans-boundary water Conflicts
• The trans boundary basins and aquifers link
populations of different countries and support
the incomes and livelihoods of hundreds of
millions of people worldwide
14. Agriculture will be the
future biggest demand
• A big concern is that
shortages in water will
intensify the already
rising trend of global
food prices.
• This is linked to climate
change and changes in
the predictability of
supply, i.e. the rainfall
patterns.
16. Your Turn - Research
• From the table below choose ONE issue and produce a one
sided fact file on the case study. These can then be shared
with the rest of the class. Try to include a map
Location Reason for conflict / pressure point
Tigris –
Euphrates
Turkeys GAP project will take a lot of water before it goes
downstream and Syria also building dams along the river.
Ganges –
Brahaputra
Faraka barrage has reduced flow into Bangladesh from India
Colorado
Basin
Different states demand different uses and therefore volumes of
water from the river. (WITHIN)
Nile Basin Varied use of water by different countries effecting the flow.
Danube Flows through 17 different countries and provides drinking water for
10million people. How do you manage it?
Murray
Darling Basin
Huge issues in Australia of over abstraction by farmers in NSW
along the river
18. India and Bangladesh water tension
Video
• 54 rivers shared
between the
countries.
• Indian Government
control the flow of
the Teesta River.
• 315km in India
