YOURNAMEHERE
YOURSCHOOLHERE
“How long can a human being survive without water?” That seems like a simple question. Packer (2002) points out that this seemingly simple question is not simple at all. Various factors mean that the answer can be anywhere from a few hours to several days. Regardless, though, one thing is clear. Water is necessary for life. The Earth (capital “E” for our home world) is unique in the solar system with its vast supply of liquid water (Blue Planet, n.d.). Since a human body is 60% water, this is obviously a substance of some importance (The Water In You, n.d.).
The United States of America, west of the 98th meridian and east of the Rocky Mountains was literally a new world those who had immigrated from forested Europe and then had worked their way across the heavily forested eastern United States. A description so often quoted as to be unattributable was that a squirrel could run from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and never touch the ground. East of Independence Missouri, though, the treeless prairie stretched. The sod defeated the existing technology of wooden and iron plows, requiring the development of alloy steel plows before the sodbusters could till fields and plant crops. The development of windmills and deep well drilling completed the tools necessary to open the “old west.”
Water is the other requirement of course, for consumption by humans and animals, and to support agriculture. Smith (1920) reminds us that well distributed, reliable rainfall of at least 20 inches per year is the basic requirement for crops to prosper. Intervening improvements in hybrid seeds have produced more drought resistant crops but water remains at a premium in that part of the north American continent.
In Colorado, for example, water law has accounted for literally every drop of water available. Wolf (2016) outlines a complicated system of adjudications based on three core tenants. “First in use, first in right,” clarifies that among beneficial uses the earliest has precedence. “Use it or lose it,” is based in the scarcity of the resource. If it is not being used then other alternative claims can be made and may succeed in well established water courts. “Water can be bought and sold,” clarifies that there is clear economic value to a scarce commodity.
The water supply for the City of Aurora, Colorado, for example, is 95% surface water with only 5% drawn from wells (Water Sources, 2016). The leaders in Aurora realized that additional water sources would be needed to support growth. Since water can be bought and sold, the leaders went in search of sources that might be available. In the early 1980s they began purchasing Arkansas River water rights from the Rocky Ford Ditch Company. Amos (2001) reports on the impact of these purchases on agriculture in the Arkansas River Valley. Where irrigated agriculture is a staple of the economy the loss of water rights can be crippling. These issues are handled civilly, if not amicably, in well respected and understood court systems.
In Africa, on the other hand, things are handled quite differently. Wolf (2006) points out that “Africa is unique among the developing world regions in that all major rivers, freshwater lakes and aquifers are shared by two or more countries, and each country in the continent shares one or more freshwater bodies with its neighbors, often hostile neighbors. (p. xi)” In this situation it is no wonder that water becomes used as a weapon. It can be, and actually was, the original weapon of mass destruction. When water supplies are cut off humans cannot survive.
As of 2013, Otieno pointed out eight existing water conflicts with another two potential sites on the African continent. Egypt and Ethiopia, for example, barely avoided military conflict over Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Ethiopia Dam. The dam, designed to produce 6,000 megwatts of hydroelectricity threatened the flow of the Nile on which Egypt is almost solely dependent for water. This is not a case of water being used as a weapon, per se, but rather, conflicting interests, when both are supported in law and treaty. Ethiopia bases its claim on the “Harmon Doctrine,” a theory in international law that holds that a nation has the sovereign right to any waters flowing through it. Egypt based its case on a series of treaties and agreements made at various times in history although most Nile basin nations had not signed them.
Ethiopia’s hunger for electricity has led to conflicts with Kenya as well. A dam is planned for the River Omo which, in turn, is the main source of water for Lake Turkana. Lake Turkana is the water source for many Kenyans in the north eastern portion of country. The outrage of environmentalists and the government of Kenya did not stop the dam.
The third region to be considered is the Turkey-Iraq conflict over the flow of the Euphrates. The Fertile Crescent formed by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was one of the first sites of modern civilization. Along with the Nile Valley in Egypt the earliest concentrations of human beings in a small area developed. By 7,000 b.c.e. or so, modern Turkey and Iraq were supporting towns of over 1,000 people (Guisepi, n.d.).
Today the river is still the source of water for a large population. Turkey, through a series of dams designed to provide both water storage and hydroelectric power, has impaired the water flows while the down river population continues to grow. Elver (2010) traces the history of these developments. Beginning in the 1950s the hydropower, water storage and flood control dam projects began in earnest, with the water projects providing 75% of Turkish homes with running water. This may seem paltry by the standards of modern western civilization with 99% of homes having this basic amenity. It is viewed with envy by neighboring nations.
This problem is compounded dramatically by the conflicts in the second decade of the 21st Century. Al Jabbari, Ricklefs and Tollfast (2015) explain that the depredations of the Islamic State In Syria and Iraq (ISIS) have inflated the already condensed population of the area putting more and more pressure on already scarce resources. As water flow is impaired conditions only get worse. The conditions in refugee camps, and make no mistake, this is what they are, are conducive to violence under the best of conditions. Add in discomfort, thirst, hunger and no small amount of religious conflict and the stage is set for violence and there is no way to estimate how far it will spread.
On balance then we see that sociological, legal, moral, ethical and economic issues converge around water. In economic terms, water has a demand curve that is absolutely inelastic. There is no flexibility at all. Without water a human being dies. Without water crops do not grow and human beings die. Without water livestock dies. In economic terms, water is a scarce resource for which there is absolutely no substitute. In this condition, no price is too great to pay. And if necessary, any amount of violence is acceptable to obtain that which is necessary for life.
Legal issues, of course, are separate from any moral or ethical considerations. The Aurora, Colorado example highlights this. The City of Aurora took perfectly legal actions and went through the court system to confirm their position (every water transfer under Colorado Water Law is adjudicated). Yet the Mayor of Aurora found it better to simply pay for the “damage” wrought by this transaction rather than to push the City’s clearly superior legal position (Amos). This decision presents an interesting combination of legal, moral and ethical considerations. Of course, economics played a role as well. Unsaid in the article, but likely to the point of virtual certainty, is that one component of the Aurora decision was that it was less expensive to address the problem in this fashion rather than another long and expensive legal battle.
The ethical question is the toughest to analyze. Water questions often can be seen as a binary choice. With a limited resource that has no substitute, at what point does your family’s need exceed another person’s family’s need? When life is at stake, are there any limits to what you will do to protect it? What if that means another’s life is put at risk or even forfeit? This same ethical issue scales up to national levels. If a nation is threatening your citizen’s very lives by taking water will you allow it? Or will you fight?
References
Al Jabbari, M., Ricklefs, N. and Tollfast, R. (2015, August 23). Rivers of Babylon. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/iraq/2015-08-23/rivers-babylon
Amos, J. (2001, March 4). Mayor of Aurora Defends Purchase of Rocky Ford Water. The Pueblo Chieftain. Retrieved from http://cwcbweblink.state.co.us/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=165297&page=2&dbid=0
Blue Planet. (n.d.). University of Michigan lecture notes. Retrieved from http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/kling/blue_planet/
Elver, H. (2010, Spring). Turkey’s Rivers of Dispute. Middle East Research and Information Project. Retrieved from http://www.merip.org/mer/mer254/turkeys-rivers-dispute
Guisepi, R.A. (n.d.). Agriculture And The Origins Of Civilization: The Neolithic Revolution. History World International. Retrieved from http://history-world.org/neolithic.htm
Otieno, J. (2013, November 6). Understanding Africa’s Water Wars. Africa Review. Retrieved from http://www.africareview.com/special-reports/Understanding-the-water-wars-in-Africa/979182-2062968-140f6dk/index.html
Packer, R. (2002, December 9). How long can the average person survive without water? The Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-can-the-average/
Smith, J.W. (1920). Rainfall of the Great Plains in Relation to Cultivation. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, V. 10, pp. 69-74. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/2560765?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
The water in you. (n.d.). The USGS Water Science School. Retrieved from http://water.usgs.gov/edu/propertyyou.html
Water Sources. (2016). City of Aurora, Colorado. Retrieved from https://www.auroragov.org/residents/water/water_system/water_sources/
Wolf, A. (2005). Hydropolitical Vulnerability and Resilience Along International Waters. Oregon State University. Retrieved from http://www.droughtmanagement.info/literature/UNEP_hydropolitical_vulnerability_resilience_africa_2006.pdf
Wolf, D. (2016). Synopsis of Colorado Water Law. Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Resources. Retrieved from http://water.state.co.us/DWRIPub/DWR%20General%20Documents/SynopsisofCOWaterLaw.pdf
