Water-Peace-Political Stability Nexus

Published on April 19, 2020 19:10 by Nidhi Nagabhatla, Senior Programme Officer at United Nations University in Social

“Uncovering water’s peacebuilding potential requires a constant exploration of the emergent water-peace- political stability nexus and how the various forms of cooperation and conflict interact with this nexus.”

Excerpts from the paper : Peace as a Strategy for Planning Water Secure Futures

The full article available at https://inweh.unu.edu/peace-as-a-strategy-for-planning-water-secure-futures/

10 key points

1. Water is subjugated to both cooperative and conflictive outcomes;

2. It remains pertinent to understand the attribution of water as a direct or indirect driver of conflicts;

3. Water as the cause of conflict is an oversimplification of how water affects conflict, the conflict’s drivers, or the stakeholders’ water-related grievances;

4. Also, understanding the interlinkages between water and the geopolitics is vital explain the interfacing with peace and political stability aspects;

5. Water security conceptual understanding [conceptual framework: https://www.unwater.org/publications/water-security-infographic/ reflects the potential to plan water-secure futures while managing uncertainties that operate in various socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political settings;

6. Water security planning when attended within the * environmental peacebuilding objectives bears potential to address conflicts related to land, water, and the climate crisis more inclusively and equitably;

* refers to all forms of cooperation on environmental issues between distinct social groups, which aim at

achieve creating less violent and more peaceful relations between these groups [Ide (2019)]https://academic.oup.com/isr/article-abstract/21/3/327/4953251

7. Decoding this nexus can help to outline “solutions” the capture the interplay of various and diverse water sector-related challenges; existing indices, matrix and indicators can be applied;

8. Blue Peace Index unifies both the hard and soft science qualities that show potential for analyzing data and generating broader pictures of transboundary and domestic water security-https://bluepeaceindex.eiu.com;

9. Understanding this nexus can contribute to the latent peacebuilding potential while ensuring water-secure futures for states and communities;

10. Besides, the peace and political stability stream of knowledge enhancement and capacity development in the context of water security needs awareness and action.

The above set of arguments also derive from a set of case studies-the Cochabamba water crisis of Bolivia, the transboundary water sharing conflicts and cooperation episodes in the Jordan Basin, and the water component in the Syrian conflict.

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