Understanding patterns of water conflicts: Social and political variables

Abstract

The article underlines the importance of water as a resource which is very unevenly distributed on Earth. Asia is a water deficit region in which 36 per cent of Earth's water is available for 60 per cent of the world's population. The disturbing aspect is how water's unequal distribution, spatially as well as temporally, engenders different kinds of conflicts in the region. In some cases, water becomes a latent factor in causing other conflicts. The conflicts over resources, particularly over water, are couched in different dimensions of politics. The article discusses various types of water conflicts and argues about the limitations of the managerial approach to the understanding of water conflicts. There is a need to deconstruct the social dimension of water usage and the politics behind its sharing at all levels. © 2011 ICSAC.