Sharing water in the 21st century: Rethinking the rationale?

Abstract

Water - considered the ''oil'' of the 21st century - has been at the core of every discussion on sustainable development. The 20th century witnessed many classical examples of conflicts and cooperation over water sharing. Amid increasing awareness of the ''scarcity value'' of water, there have been numerous examples of competing and conflicting views on the sharing of this prime natural resource and the elixir of life. While there is a strong apprehension that the next world war would be fought over water, there is an equally strong optimistic theory of water being a potent source of future cooperation. The paper stresses the need for rethinking the rationale to identify parameters such as utility-based classification, the economic value of its productive use, exchange of other natural resources and sharing of environmental impacts, that can improve its acceptability. Echoing hydro-hegemony, it concludes that in the 21st century a water-sharing rationale based merely on the argument for the ''life-sustaining value'' of water may not yield workable treaties and, apart from drinking needs, water, although a flowing resource, may be required to be shared on the basis of economic principles. Such rethinking on the rationale has also become necessary for ensuring sustainability of irrigated agriculture. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.