Wars Fought Over Water
Environmental health is very essential in our society since it helps in addressing the biological factors, chemical and physical factors which are external to an individual and also address all other factors which are related to affecting behaviors. Water safety is a major necessity in the environment of today since it guards the society from health issues. The quality of the environment contributes greatly in the stability of the society . Water is a necessity that is needed in our everyday life. Therefore, its scarcity has posed a great danger and a high threat towards the protection of the environment and sustainable development. Unless there is effective and proper management of land and water resources in the current decade and beyond there is a huge risk in the welfare and health of humans, ecosystem, industrial development and food security. The unfortunate fact is that water is not a renewable resource and increased water problems are expected in the future.
Demand for potable water and water resources expand beyond the available water in the environment and this is how water conflicts occur. Elements of a water catastrophe may put stress on affected groups to acquire more of a common water supply, causing outright conflict and diplomatic tension. The potential for water disputes is becoming high mostly imagining the fact that 1.1 billion individuals lack adequate water supply. Apart from water being a necessity for life, it is also required for proper sanitation, commercial goods production and commercial services. When it comes to water disputes in most cases you find numerous types of parties implicated. A good example include corporate entities which are said to pollute water resources which are normally shared by a community or even the governments who in most cases argue on who should access a river which is a boundary of inter-state or international.
The interest of corporate sometimes goes beyond opposing commercial interest and also concerns on the environment which lead to other types of disputes. For example, in the year 1960 some of the big lakes including Lake Erie were highly polluted to a point of killing a large number of fish. This led to a great suffering by the local community due to dismal quality of water which led to the creation of Clean Water Act by the United States Congress in 1972. There have been numerous other wars because of water in various countries and in most cases the government has to intervene. Laws have to be passed by various governments protecting water in order to avoid some of these conflicts. Another good example is seen in China which is highly known for heavy industrialization which pause a great health risk due to water pollution. Most cities lacked safe water for drinking and this led to the passing of Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law.
However, due to increased wars because of water, several programs have been created in order to help various countries and communities sort out this matter. One of these program include the UN International Hydrological Program which major aim is to help in improvement of clear understanding on matters of water resources and develop an effective way to manage the water. But by extreme the most dynamic UN program in water clash declaration is its Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential duty which is in its third phase in training the professionals of water and organizing educational efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere. The major targets groups for this programme are lawmakers, diplomats, water studies students and civil society so that they can help in expansion of water disputes knowledge thus with the aim of encouraging co-operation among countries when dealing with conflicts. As water conflicts become more public, UNESCO is doing its best to focus on yielding a consistent way for mediating disputes internationally and also locally.
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