Aspectos éticos en la gestión del agua

8/6/2019 Aspectos ticos en la gestin del agua

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Published by UNESCO Bangkok

Asia and Paciic Regional Bureau or EducationMom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Building920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, KlongtoeyBangkok 10110, Thailand

UNESCO 2011

All rights reserved

ISBN 978-92-9223-358-7(Print version)

ISBN 978-92-9223-359-4 (Electronic version)

The designations employed and the presentation o material throughout this publication do not implythe expression o any opinion whatsoever on the part o UNESCO concerning the legal status o any

country, territory, city or area or o its authorities, or concerning the delimitation o its rontiers orboundaries.

The authors are responsible or the choice and the presentation o the acts contained in this book andor the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those o UNESCO and do not commit theOrganization.

Edited by Darryl R.J. MacerDesign/Layout by Alessandra Blasi (cover), Darryl Macer, Raine Boonlong and Sirisak Chaiyasook (content)Cover photo by UNESCO/S. Chaiyasook

Printed in Thailand

SHS/11/OS/003-1000


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CONTENTS

Preace ...........................................................................................................................................................................................v

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................. 1

1. Water and Lie ...................................................................................................................................................................... 2

1.1 Basics of Water ................................ ................................. .................................. .................................. .................................. ...............2

1.2 Uses of Water .................................. ................................. .................................. .................................. .................................. ...............4

1.3 Water for Energy Production ................................. .................................. .................................. .................................. ...............7

1.4 Water Resources, Availability and Stress .................................. .................................. ............................... ........................... 9

1.5 Water and Conflict .................................. .................................. ................................. .................................. .................................. .11

1.6 Water, Culture and Religion ................................. .................................. ............................... .................................. .................. 14

2. Water Ethics..........................................................................................................................................................................16

2.1 Roles of Water Ethics ............................... ................................. .................................. ................................ ................................. ..16

2.2 Frameworks for Water Ethics ............................. .................................. ................................ .................................. .................. 16

2.3 Principle of Human Dignity and the Right to Water ............................. .................................. .................................. .18

2.4 The Principle of Equity in Availability and Applicability of Water: The Right to Water ........................ 18

2.5 Ecosystem Requirements and a Healthy Environment .................................. .................................. ....................... 19

2.6 Principle of Vicinity ................................. ................................. .................................. .................................. ................................. ..20

2.7 Principle of Frugality .............................. ................................. .................................. .................................. ................................. ..20

2.8 Principle of Transaction....................................... ................................. .................................... .................................. .................. 20

2.9 Principle of Multiple and Beneficial Use of Water ............................................ .................................. ........................ 21

2.10 Principle of Mandatory Application of Quantity and Quality Measures ...................................................... .21

2.11 Principle of Compensation and User Pays .......................................................................................................................22

2.12 Principle of Polluter Pays ............................................................................................................................................................22

2.13 Principle of Participation .............................................................................................................................................................22

2.14 Principle of Equitable and Reasonable Utilization ......................................................................................................22

2.15 Future Reflections on Water Ethics ......................................................................................................................................23

3. Problems in Current Water Management The Need or Water Ethics .......................................................... 24

3.1 Overview ................................. .................................. ................................. ................................ .................................. ........................ 24

3.2 Pollution ................................. .................................. .................................. ................................. .................................. ........................ 25

3.3 Water Governance .................................. ................................. .................................. .................................. ................................. ..27

3.4 Access Rights to Water in Practice ................................ .................................. .................................. ................................. ..31

4. Policy Options and Construction o Practical Water Ethics.................................................................................33

4.1 Lifestyle Change and Motivation ............................. ................................. .................................. .................................. .......33

4.2 Valuing Water ................................ .................................. .................................. .................................. ................................. ............. 33

4.3 An Overlaping Kind of Water Ownership .................................. .................................. .................................. .................. 34

4.4 Ensuring Water Quality .................................. .................................. ................................. .................................. ........................ 36

4.5 Policies to Overcome Water Scarcity .............................. .................................. ................................ ................................. ..36

4.6 Modeling Method A Useful Decision Support Tool ................................ .................................. ............................. 37

4.7 The Roles of Experts, Stakeholders and Decision Makers ............................. .................................. ....................... 37

4.8 Education ............................. ................................. .................................. ................................... .................................. ........................ 38

4.9 Balancing International Governance with National Sovereignty ............................. .................................. .......41

5. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................................................................... 42


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List of Tables

List of Figures

Table 1: Categories of Water and Their Different Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Table 2: Summary of CUFA Conditions Required for Additional Diversion of Gila-San Francisco River . . . 52

Table 3: Annual Mean of Water Diversion between Service Areas of MRP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

6. Case Studies .........................................................................................................................................................................43

Case Study 1: The Need for a More Efficient Aquaculture Industry .................................. .................................... ...... 43

Case Study 2: Computer-Aided, Community-Based Water Planning: Gila-San Francisco Decision

Support Tool ................................ ................................. .................................. .................................. ............................. 51

Case Study 3: The South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China.........................................................................57

Case Study 4: Review on Chinese Water Ethics .......................................................................................................................68

7. Reerences ............................................................................................................................................................................73

Figure 1: Distribution of Earths Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Figure 2: Earths Water Available for Human Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Figure 3: The Water Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Figure 4: Competing Water Uses for Main Income Groups of Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Figure 5: Freshwater Resources Per Capita of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Figure 6: Water Governance System in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Figure 7: Diagram of a New Ownership Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Figure 8: Construction of a Framework of Water Ethics (Liu, 2007) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Figure 9: Upper Gila Region Spanning New Mexico and Arizona States. The Three Outlined Basins are

Study Regions of the GSF Decision Support Tool. Red Circles Indicate USGS Gauges . . . . . . 51

Figure 10: Homepage of GSF Decision Support Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Figure 11: Gila River Water Availability Using1979-2001 Historical Hydrograph of USGS Gila Gauge. . . . 55

Figure 12: General Layout of South to North Water Diversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Figure 13: Layout of Eastern Route Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Figure 14: Yellow River Crossing Project of Eastern Route Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Figure 15: Layout of the Middle Route Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Figure 16: Photo of Shijiazhong to Beijing Canal on October 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Figure 17: Layout of the Western Route Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67


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ECCAPWG14Report:WaterE

thicsandWaterResourceManagem

ent

v

PREFACE

The report is the product o international collaboration between members o Working Group 14 on

Water Ethics and Water Resource Management established under the Chairship o the Center or WaterResearch, Peking University, China, under the ramework o the Ethics and Climate Change in Asia andPaciic project (ECCAP), launched in September 2007 by the Regional Unit in Social and Human Sciencesin Asia and the Paciic (RUSHSAP) at UNESCO Bangkok. In 2007 and 2008 some o the authors met at theJoint UNESCO-Peking University Conerences on Water Ethics, and working group sessions were alsoorganized in other countries.

The Ethics and Climate Change in Asia and the Paciic (ECCAP) project aims to encourage scienceand value-based discussions on environmental ethics to produce substantive cross-cultural andmultidisciplinary outputs or long-term policy making. The aim o the ECCAP project is not to ormulateuniversal economic or political plans o how to deal with these issues. Rather, the working groups o theproject aim to increase awareness and discussion o the complex ethical dilemmas related to energyand the environment, and to identiy scientiic data, and available ethical rameworks o values and

principles or policy options that have proven useul in acing the challenges in certain communitiesand countries. The projects are ongoing, and the details o this report that extends the Asia-PaciicPerspectives on Bioethics series, can be ound in the Executive Summary.

The reports were developed by working groups, whose members participate as individuals in thehighest standards o intellectual vigour and integrity, integrating engineers, philosophers, policymakers, experts, youth, and persons o many dierent cultural backgrounds and experiences. Thereports are subject to ongoing open peer review, and the principal authors are listed. The authors are allmembers o the working group 14, and thank Dr. Jayapaul Azariah, Dr. Fakrul Islam, Dr. Sultan Ismail, Ms.Anniken Celina Grinvoll, Ms. Lindsey McGraw, Dr. Salil Sen, Dr. Edward Spence, Dr. Ni Ni Thein, ProessorWeiping Wang, and Dr. Feruza Zagirtdinova who all provided comments and assistance to the report.The WG chair, Jie Liu, and the ECCAP coordinator, Darryl Macer, appreciate all these contributions andcomments during the conerences and dialogues over this report.

There is ongoing discussion o numerous reports on the yahoo group, [email protected],that are in various stages o drating. For all other reports, drats and outline, and speciic requests orurther case studies and analyses, please examine the working group webpages which list the members,and the overall website, http://www.unescobkk.org/rushsap/energyethics. Feedback and commentsare invited to Dr. Darryl Macer, Regional Advisor in Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Paciic,Regional Unit or Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Paciic (RUSHSAP) at UNESCO Bangkok, oremail [email protected]

Gwang-Jo KimDirector

UNESCO Bangkok
mailto:[email protected]://www.unescobkk.org/rushsap/energyethicsmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.unescobkk.org/rushsap/energyethicsmailto:[email protected]


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Executive SummaryThis report examines ethical issues associated with water resource utilization and management,including its uses in energy and other domains. Under the Ethics and Climate Change in Asia and thePaciic (ECCAP) project, the Water Ethics working group has compiled a report with some case studies

highlighting dierent ethical issues associated with water resource utilization and management. Thereport systematically discusses how water ethics can make a dierence to water related practicesand provides a cross-cultural review o the issues. The report reveals gaps in existing knowledge toresearchers, policy makers and unders o research, which could be used to examine linkages betweenresearch and policy making, and presents areas o policy options to governments.

The work also eeds into considerations o the ethics o climate change that are being made by theWorld Commission on the Ethics o Scientiic Knowledge and Technology (COMEST). The work buildsupon some earlier COMEST relections on water ethics and a growing body o discussion on thetopics o water ethics. The ECCAP project1 calls or developing dialogues within each participatingcountry and between countries on the results o research, uture research needs, policy lessons andpolicy recommendations in regard to the ethical issues o energy-related technologies and related

environmental and human security issues. The conclusions o this report are applicable to all humanuses o water, not only those related to direct use in energy production, or indirect use such as in energyintensive agricultural production systems.

Water is the most essential substance upon which all lie depends. Water is a non-renewable resource,though it can be recycled. Climate change, rapid industrialization and urbanization, continuingpopulation growth and mismanagement o water resources cause unprecedented water stresses. Theaccess and use o water by humans and ecosystems is discussed in this report. Water is at the heart omany religions and culture. Cultural traditions, indigenous practices and societal values determine howpeople perceive and manage water, and provide useul reerences or water ethics construction.

The report examines some possible ethical principles to resolve moral dilemmas involving water.Existing problems in current water management practices are discussed in light o these principles.

Transormation o human water ethics has the potential to be ar more eective, cheaper and acceptablethan some existing means o regulation, but transormation o personal and societal ethics need timebecause the changes to ethical values are slow.

Policy options are discussed with some examples, that are urther explored in the appendices whichinclude our case studies conducted by the members o the working group rom perspectives odierent ields, and they illustrate both theory and practical application o the ideas in the reportmore concretely. These include: The Need or a More Eicient Aquaculture Industry; Computer-Aided,Community-Based Water Planning: Gila-San Francisco Decision Support Tool; The South-to-North WaterDiversion Project in China; A Review on Chinese Water Ethics.

The construction o water ethics needs joint eorts and interdisciplinary collaboration at all levels.By ollowing certain general principles, adopting scientiic methods and tools, arousing experts,

stakeholders and decision makers responsibility, and conducting ethical education or young people,the construction o ethically acceptable water utilization and management system can be expected tooccur in the near uture.

1 The formal launch to the EETAP (and ECCAP) project was the Conference on Ethics of Energy Technologies in Asia

and the Pacific held in Bangkok, 26-28 September 2007.


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1. Water and Life

1.1 Basics of Water

Water is an essential substance upon which all lie depends. Where there is water there is lie, and where

water is scarce, lie has to struggle. About 75% o the earths surace is covered by water, as the sayinggoes water, water, everywhere. The distribution o water on the Earth, based on human economicneeds or reshwater, is represented in Figure 1. The let-side bar shows where the water on Earth exists;about 97% o all water is in the oceans. The middle bar shows the distribution o reshwater that is only3% o all Earths water. However, the physical state o water, including the reshwater, is not always liquid.Nearly 69% is locked up in glaciers, icecaps and permanent snow cover o both poles, mountainousregions and in Greenland. Land based glaciers aect stream low quantity and provide water resourcesto the lowland regions. While 30% o reshwater comes rom groundwater.2 Only 0.3% o the reshwateron Earth is contained in river systems, lakes and reservoirs, which are the water we are most amiliar withand the most accessible water source to satisy human needs in our daily lives.

Figure 1: Distribution of Earths Water

Earths water

Saline(oceans)

97%

Groundwater30.1%

Icecaps

andglaciers68.7%

Lakes 87%

Freshwater 3% Other 0.9%Rivers 2%Surace

water

0.3%

Freshwater Fresh surace water (liquid)

Source: USGS http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html

Even though three quarters o the earths surace is covered by water, not all o that water is availableor human uses. Figure 2 shows that more than 99% o all water (oceans, ice, most saline water andatmospheric water) is not available or our uses. Even o the remaining raction o 1%, much o that isstored in the ground. Surace water sources (such as rivers and lakes) only constitute 0.0067% o thetotal water.

Figure 2: Earths Water Available for Human Uses

All water on earth

Unusable 99%

Groundwater 99%

Water usable by humans 1%

Lakes 0.86% Rivers 0.02%

Source: USGS http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.htm

2 Including underground water such as deep aquifers rather than subsurface water, which is often included as surface

water.
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.htmlhttp://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.htmhttp://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.htmhttp://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html


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Here we can see that water is generally classiied into surace water and groundwater. Surace water iswater ound in a river, lake or other surace impoundment. Surace water is exposed to many dierentcontaminants, such as animal wastes, pesticides, insecticides, industrial wastes, and many organicmaterials. Groundwater is the part o precipitation that iniltrates down through the soil until it reachesrock material that is saturated with water. Water in the ground is stored in the spaces between rock

particles, and slowly moves underground, generally at a downward angle, and may eventually seep intostreams, lakes and oceans. Groundwater is not always accessible, and sometimes is diicult to locate orto measure and describe. Compared to surace water, groundwater is not as easily contaminated, butonce it is contaminated, the ull remediation and recovery is not easily achieved.

Surace water and groundwater are oten correlated and can be transormed to each other within thewater cycle, which is also known as the hydrological cycle.3 This is the continuous movement o wateron, above and below the surace o the Earth (Figure 3). Surace and ground water cycles are only part oglobal cycle o water including the evaporation. There is no starting or ending point o the water cycle,and water can change states among liquid, vapor and ice at various places in the cycle.

Water is not in a static condition but there is a dynamic exchange o water among the ocean, landand atmosphere. The turnover o water involves water evaporation and precipitation processes. The

turnover o the Earths water estimates as 577,000 cubic km per year (Shiklomanov, 1996) and about40% o precipitation that alls on land comes rom ocean derived evaporation and 60% rom land surace(Figure 3). These large volumes o water illustrate the key role that precipitation plays in renewingwater resources, especially recharging the ground water which is the main source o reshwater andsupporting both rained agriculture and ecosystem.4 The dynamics and value o ull renewal o water,ull replenishment, depend on water volume and its dynamics. It is estimated that the ull renewal timeo the ocean may take 2,500 years, ground water 1,400 years, ground ice o the permarost zone 10,000years, polar ice 9,700 years, mountain glaciers 1,600 years, lakes 17 years and 8 days or atmosphericmoisture (Shiklomanov, 1996). The times vary with climatic conditions, which are rapidly changing now.

Figure 3: The Water Cycle

Adapted from USGS, http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html

3 We note that deep or fossil aquifers are not usually linked with any of the surface water, unless they are extracted

by humans for present uses.4 Refer to the 2nd UNWorld Water Development Report: Water, a shared responsibility. 2006. pp. 123-125.
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.htmlhttp://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html


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1.2 Uses of Water

1.2.1 Consumption and Utility

Although we use sea water and oceans in many ways ranging rom transport, as a reservoir or dumping

pollution, to recreation, this report ocuses on reshwater. Uses o water can be classiied as eitherconsumptive and non-consumptive. A use o water is consumptive i that water is not immediatelyavailable or another use. The source and location o water are also measured in some schemes. Lossesto sub-surace seepage and evaporation are considered consumptive, as the water is incorporatedinto a product. Water that can be treated and returned as surace water, such as sewage, is generallyconsidered non-consumptive i that water can be put to additional use.5 A non-consumptive use iswhen water use does not diminish the source or impair the uture water use.

Utility is the most common concept behind the dierent classiications o water use, though the actualmeaning o utility and its scope have been changing over the last ew decades. There is a growingrecognition o indirect and non-use values when the beneits arising rom ecological systems orpotential uture use o the water resources are considered. For example, wise use is the core concepto Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, while the Convention on the Law o the Non-Navigational Uses oInternational Watercourses (1997) encourages equitable and rational use o water. Indirect or non-usevalues are also regarded as an optional value to preserve environmental resources, though there issubstantial dierence in interpretation ocused either on risk reduction or utility maximization, providedthat any action is irreversible and its result is uncertain.6 In case o the International WatercourseConvention, no use could be perceived as utility maximization since the only qualiying condition orno use is uncertainty or no consensus about the preerence between dierent uses o water.

The use o water and water services are oten reerred to as interchangeable categories (MEA, 2004; IWMI,2006; FAO, 2008) which is another example o recognition o the multiunctional role o water. Basedon this, the typology o water use is classiied into: provisioning services (water or ood production,plants and medicine), regulating services (lood protection, erosion control, natural treatment owater quality), and cultural and social services (cultural heritage, landscape, scientiic research). The

Convention Concerning the Protection o the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972) is an exampleor protection o places based on their aesthetic, scientiic or cultural values. The Yellowstone NationalPark, because o its outstanding scenic beauty, or the Iugao Rice Terrace o Philippines, or its communalsystem o rice cultivation based on harvesting water rom the orest clad mountain tops, are outstandingexamples o harmonious interaction o people and nature.

Having identiied the condition o water use set in international instruments we have reviewed waterlegislation o some selected countries including Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, DemocraticPeoples Republic o Korea, Mongolia, Philippines, Viet Nam and Uzbekistan 7 to assess whether andhow these criteria are translated into the local legislation. Without any exception, the objectivesand purpose o reviewed laws set a primary ocus on meeting the needs o population and socio-economic development, through conservation and management o water resources with due regardo environmental requirements. Thereore, it is evident that water is treated as a natural resource, while

the protection and conservation o the aquatic ecosystem per se is the subject o separate legislation,mainly the law on environmental protection. Except a minor variation, which is the case or China, thetypology o water use is based on purpose and scale o utilization and classiied into the domestic(household), industrial (including the hydropower) and agricultural use o water. Navigational use owater and utilization o hydraulic energy is included in the Water Law o China rom 2002.

5 http://www.wateresources.org/2008/07/23/uses-of-fresh-water.

6 OECD 2007, Assessing Environmental Policies http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/15/38208236.pdf

Please see also, Hanemann W. M. On Reconciling Different Concepts of option Value http://escholarship.org/uc/

item/81w7290x7 Based on availability of water legislation on FAO waterlex database http://waterlex.fao.org/waterlex/srv/en/home
http://www.wateresources.org/2008/07/23/uses-of-fresh-waterhttp://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/15/38208236.pdfhttp://escholarship.org/uchttp://waterlex.fao.org/waterlex/srv/en/homehttp://waterlex.fao.org/waterlex/srv/en/homehttp://escholarship.org/uchttp://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/15/38208236.pdfhttp://www.wateresources.org/2008/07/23/uses-of-fresh-water


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With only the exception o Kazakhstan and Indonesia, the government regulation and intervention inwater use enables the beneicial and multiple use since none o these countries allows any entitlemento water ownership. For example:

Water Code o Philippines (31 December 1976), Article 18, water permits granted shall be the subjecto beneicial use. Article 23, Properties may be altered on grounds o greater beneicial use, multi-purpose use and other similar grounds....

Water Resources Law o Democratic Peoples Republic o Korea (18 June 1997), Article 5, waterresources are put into comprehensive and rational use.

Water Resources Law o Indonesia (Law No.7/2004), Article 5, Use Water Right as intended underArticle 6 Paragraph (4) consists o the beneicial use o water rights and the commercial use o waterrights.

Water Law o China (amended in 2002), Article 4, The development, utilization, saving and protectiono water resources shall be carried out with emphasis on multi-purposes use and on achievingmaximum beneits so as to give ull advantage to the multiple unctions o water resources.

1.2.2 Agricultural Water Use

Agricultural use o water or irrigation, livestock, isheries and aquaculture 8 is estimated as thecause o 71% o total water withdrawal. This number is higher in low and middle income countries(Figure 4). Between 15-35% o withdrawal o water or irrigation is unsustainable. The eective useo water is an ethical issue that could reduce the water usage related to crop and animal production(Appelgren, 2004). Compared to the increase o cultivated land by about 24% rom 1961 to 2003 (CA2006 )9, the size o irrigated areas more than doubled rom 1970 to 1995 (IWMI-FAO). About 70% o theworlds irrigated land is in Asia, where it accounts or 35% o cultivated land (CA 2006). The DemocraticPeoples Republic o Korea has the highest level, with 73% o cultivated land under irrigation, ollowedby Japan with 65% and China with 55%. Bangladesh, Nepal, Republic o Korea and Viet Nam have morethan 40% o cultivated land under irrigation. Some tropical countries o south Asia and the Islands have

an average between 20-25% o their cultivated land under irrigation (FAO Aquastat).

Cultivated crops, techniques and schemes o irrigation, sources o water used vary across the region.Overall, the surace water (lakes, rivers, wells) is the major source o irrigation, while the ground wateris widely used in Bangladesh and India. Powered irrigation is common in dry season or in arid and semiarid zones. However, it is well documented that subsidies on energy prices are associated with extensiveuse o pumping and depletion o aquiers. It is reported that irrigation enables armers to cultivate morediverse land areas, or example, Bangladeshs powered irrigation accounts or 83% o its total irrigatedarea, 54% in India and 54% in China and these countries have balanced distribution o crop varieties,while in Southeast Asia (Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka) rice is the most common crop representing 90% ocrops.

According to FAO, the pressure on water resources is considered high i the withdrawal exceeds 25% o

total renewable water resources: this threshold is already exceeded in India and the Republic o Koreawith 34% and 26% respectively. Other countries like China, Japan, Democratic Peoples Republic oKorea and Sri Lanka also have high values with 19%, 21%, 18% and 20% respectively (FAO, 2006).

In some areas o the world irrigation is necessary to grow any crop, in other areas it is ocused onmore proitable crops, or it is used to enhance crop yield. Various irrigation methods involve trade-os between crop yield, water consumption and capital costs o equipment and structures. Irrigationmethods such as most urrow and overhead sprinkler irrigation are usually less expensive but also less

8 Aquaculture as part of agricultural use of water is discussed in case study 1 of this report -The need for a more

efficient aquaculture industry, There is a separate study in preparation on Energy Flow, Environment and theEthical Implications of Aquatic Meat Production under the ECCAP project http://www.unescobkk.org/rushsap/

energyethics/eetwg13

9 Water for Food, Water for Life: the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture 2006 http://

www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Assessment/index.htm
http://www.unescobkk.org/rushsaphttp://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Assessment/index.htmhttp://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Assessment/index.htmhttp://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Assessment/index.htmhttp://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Assessment/index.htmhttp://www.unescobkk.org/rushsap


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eicient, because much o the water evaporates or runs o. The ethical issues in the choices depend onhow to balance the beneits and risks, and the needs o today versus investment in requirements oruture generations. More eicient irrigation methods include drip or trickle irrigation, surge irrigation,and some types o sprinkler systems where the sprinklers are operated near ground level. These typeso systems, while being more expensive, can minimise runo and evaporation.10

Aquaculture is a small but growing agricultural use o water. Freshwater commercial isheries mayalso be considered as agricultural uses o water, but have generally been assigned a lower prioritythan irrigation. As global populations grow and demands or ood increase with a ixed water supplyin the world, there are eorts underway to learn how to produce more ood with less water, throughimprovements in irrigation methods and technologies, agricultural water management, crop types andwater monitoring. For example, i we ind synthetic materials require less water to produce (which is notusually the case now), there may be a shit rom use o natural ibres such as cotton and wool.

The competing water uses or countries grouped according to their main sources o income are shownin Figure 4.

Figure 4: Competing Water Uses for Main Income Groups of Countries

Agricultural

use 70%

Agricultural

use 30%

Agricultural

use 82%

Industrial

use 22%

Competing water uses(world)

Competing water uses(high-income countries)

Competing water uses(low and middle-income countries)

Industrial

use 59%

Industrial

use 10%

Domestic use 8% Domestic use 8%Domestic use 11%

Source: UNESCO, 2003.

1.2.3 Industrial Water Use

It is estimated that 15% o world-wide water use is or industrial purposes. A number o countries inAsia are developing their economies by industrial investment.11 Some industrial users include power

plants, which use water or cooling or as a power source (i.e. hydroelectricity plants, see section 1.3),ore mining,12 oil reineries, which use water in chemical processes, and manuacturing plants, whichuse water as a solvent. The portion o industrial water usage that is consumptive varies widely, but as awhole it is lower than agricultural use.

10 More information is on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_resources

11 For more information refer to ECCAP WG17.12 Refer to the case study of Olympic Mine in South Australia in Boonlong R. et al. (2011).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_resourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_resources


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1.2.4 Household Water Use

The world-wide water use or household purposes is around 15%. These include drinking water,bathing, cooking, sanitation and household gardening. Basic household water requirements have beenestimated by Peter Gleick (2006) at around 50 litres per person per day, excluding water or gardens.

O these 50 litres, Gleick estimated 2L or drinking, 20L or sanitation services, 15L or bathing, and10L or cooking and kitchen. However, i we examine the water consumption or ood and energy inmost countries, these exceed the direct consumption o water. (See urther discussion in the section onvaluing water).

1.2.5 Recreational Water Use

Recreational water use is a small but growing percentage o total water use. Recreational water useis oten tied to reservoirs. I a reservoir is kept uller than it would otherwise be or storage o waterbecause o recreation unctions, then the water retained could be categorized as recreational usage.Release o water rom a ew reservoirs is also timed to enhance whitewater boating, which also couldbe considered a recreational usage. Other examples are anglers, water skiers, nature enthusiasts and

swimmers. There is signiicant use o the oceans or recreation also.

Recreational usage is usually non-consumptive. However sports ields could be considered consumptive.Gol courses are oten targeted as using excessive amounts o water, especially in drier regions.Additionally, recreational usage may reduce the availability o water or other users at speciic times andplaces. For example, water retained in a reservoir to allow boating in the late summer is not available toarmers during the spring planting season. Water released or whitewater rating may not be availableor hydroelectric generation during the time o peak electrical demand.

1.2.6 Environmental Water Use

Environmental water use is or the beneit o ecosystems or the environment, rather than or humanbeneit. Explicit environmental water use is a small but growing percentage o total water use, includingartiicial wetlands, artiicial lakes intended to create wildlie habitat, ish ladders around dams, andwater releases rom reservoirs timed to help ish spawn. Like recreational usage, such environmentalusage is generally non-consumptive but may reduce the availability o water or other users at speciictimes and places. We can expect an increase in this use as biocentric and ecocentric value systems areadopted more, so that water is provided to nature reserves and national parks away rom competinghuman needs.

1.3 Water for Energy Production

Water is used in a number o energy production systems, rom mining o oil and or oil extraction, to its

use as a coolant, or driver o turbines. It is reported that hydropower shares 16% o worlds electricityproduction (IEA 2009)13 and it remains the single largest means o renewable source o energyrepresenting 92% o total renewable energy generated in the year 2000 (IHA 2000). Projection o priceincrease or primary energy sources, carbon accounting and incentives in clean energy technology aregood stimulus or the renewable energy sector. For example, a study o 50 selected dams with installedpower generation capacity o 39,000 MW ound that they replaced the equivalent o 51 million tons ouel in electric energy production annually.14 This is greater than other renewable energy sources likewind and solar power at present.

13 For the purpose of consistency and our reference in light of future projection, we refer to IEA data. According to the

World Bank and International Hydropower Association, the share of hydropower refers to 19-20% of total electricity

production.14 World Bank Lending for Large Dams: A preliminary review of Impacts http://www.worldbank.org/ieg
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Water is characterized as a stable source o energy and there is still much unexploited potential orhydropower, compared to oil and natural gas, widely spread around the globe.15 According to IHA, mosto the remaining and technically easible potential is in Asia, 6800 (TWh/year), which is higher than thetotal estimation o technically easible potential or Arica, North and South America.16

Being amongst the biggest human made single structures and besides their economic importance,hydroelectricity generation and the dam building business have generated signiicant debate overthe land use and modiication o the natural environment (Thein, 2007). Traditionally, the engineeringethics in dam construction only ocused on technical easibility and inancial accountability. The moralor ethical obligation o individual proessionals and corporations towards society and environment wasneglected. Moreover, the scope o the debate was not simply the divide into the pro-environmentalgroups against hydro industry business because o the negative environmental impacts o the largedams to local communities. The controversy over the distribution o burdens and beneits, concernsabout accountability and participation o aected communities, neglected analysis o social costsincluding involuntary resettlement and doubts in long-term beneits have grown in parallel andembodied in several statements that called or moratorium or prohibition o large dam construction.17

The World Commission on Dams (WCD) was established in 1998 to provide guidance, and it declared

that there are ive core values: equity, sustainability, eiciency, participatory decision making andaccountability. The report also outlined seven strategic principles, which may be appropriate to manyenergy production systems. These are (WCD, 2000):

1) Gaining Public Acceptance

2) Comprehensive Options Assessment

3) Addressing Existing Dams

4) Sustaining Rivers and Livelihoods

5) Recognizing Entitlements and Sharing Beneits

6) Ensuring Compliance

7) Sharing Rivers or Peace, Development and Security

Following the WCD a number o organizations have become involved in discussions including WWF,IUCN, World Bank, ADB, Arican Development Bank, WHO, and World Water Council. UNEP accepted toaccommodate multi-stakeholders in ollow-up action and to support dialogue on dam constructionengaging stakeholders through its Dams and Development Project. HSBC Group also adopted theEquator Principles in 2003 and according to its policy,18 will oer no inancial services to the energysector to support operations in UNESCO World Heritage sites, Ramsar List o Wetlands o InternationalImportance and in Tropical and High Value Conservation Forests.

A common recognition or basic principles, guidelines and recommendations has been reached onpaper but there is no universal social consensus, and still there are numerous controversies especiallyover large hydropower schemes. A signiicant amount o arguments rom dierent aspects, researchmaterials, case studies and critical thoughts has been documented.19 Statistics rom the International

15 World Bank estimates that 70% of hydro potential is yet exploited (World Bank. 2009. Directions in Hydropower).

16 IHA. 2000. Hydropower and the Worlds Energy Feature. http://www.ieahydro.org/reports/Hydrofut.pdf

17 i) Manibeli Declaration from 1994 called for a moratorium on World Bank funding of large. http://www.

internationalrivers.org/en/follow-money/manibeli-declaration. ii) Curitiba Declaration of people affected by dam,

Brazil 1997. http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/curitiba-declaration and iii) San Jose Declaration on Damsand Wetlands, May 1999, to ban construction of new hydroelectric dams that affect wetlands and the people

whose survival depends upon them. http://www.global500.org/feature_2.html. In 1996, Operations Evaluations

Department, an independent unit within the World Bank, conducted its own evaluation focused on economic,

social costs and benefits associated with 50 World Bank financed large dams built between 1956 and 1987,

concluding that 90% of these dams were consistent with the standards applicable at the time of approval. And 74%of these dams are acceptable or potentially acceptable according to the World Banks new standards. http://www.

pnud.ne/rense/Biblioth%E8que/BM05.pdf

18 HSBC lending policy to socially and environmentally sensitive sectors: Energy Sector Policy. http://www.hsbc.

com/1/PA_1_1_S5/content/assets/csr/080905_energy_sector_guidelines.pdf

19 Refer to case studies of dam construction in ECCAP WG4 (Boonlong et al., 2011) and WG5 reports.
http://www.ieahydro.org/reports/Hydrofut.pdfhttp://www/http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/curitiba-declarationhttp://www.global500.org/feature_2.htmlhttp://www/http://www.hsbc/http://www.hsbc/http://www/http://www.global500.org/feature_2.htmlhttp://www.internationalrivers.org/en/curitiba-declarationhttp://www/http://www.ieahydro.org/reports/Hydrofut.pdf


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Commission on Large Dams shows a signiicant decline o hydropower construction since the late1980s. Multinational Financial Corporations have serious routine proceedings to answer to the questionwhether or not to build dams.

1.4 Water Resources, Availability and Stress

The permanent motion o water rom liquid to solid, gaseous states (and vice versa) and its extensiveand variable dynamics o turnover, make water resource assessment a complicated, time consumingand complex task. In the meantime, water resource assessment is not limited to physical or quantitativemeasures but also considers its qualitative values. Freshwater is not always renewable, like deep or ossilaquiers and not all reshwater is accessible or use. Thereore, it is important to distinguish availablewater resource rom natural water resource, actual or manageable water resource, when reshwaterlows out to the sea, rom renewable water resources.

Clariying these two deinitions would help us igure out how much water can be really utilized byhuman beings. According to UNESCO and WMO, Water resources is deined as water available, or beingmade available, or use in suicient quantity and quality at a location over a period o time appropriateor an identiiable demand. Here two deinitions - water storage and water resources amount - shouldbe dierentiated: not all water stored on the Earth can be called water resources, and only thoseavailable with suicient quantity and quality that can satisy certain demands and uses can be calledwater resources.

The earliest comprehensive assessment o the global water resources dates back to the 1970s.20 TheFirst World Conerence on Water Resources (Argentina, 1978) also contributed in global initiativesand cooperation, urging the international community to strengthen its coordination on global waterresource assessment. Since then a number o initiatives have been taken to compile or compare existingdata on water resource, among them most recent and oten reerred are FAOs global inormation systemon renewable water resources (Aquastat programe started rom 1994) and the UNESCO-IHP project onwater assessment (1991-1996).

FAOs Aquastat is a database on water resources based on an accounting approach: the total renewablewater resources (TRWR) o a country, which consist o the internal renewable water resources (IRWR),plus external water resources. The IRWR are the amount o water generated inside a country, and theERWR are the amount o water generated in upstream countries. Shiklomanovs data compilation onreshwater resource is based on a net balance approach, natural water resource minus demand oprincipal sectors o water use.

Overall, reshwater resources are suicient to satisy human needs. However, due to uneven distributionacross the regions, countries and among the countries or across dierent sectors that use water, thereis a conlicting and competing interest over the reshwater. Dierent indicators are used to estimate thedistribution o reshwater resources and to deine water stress. The European Environmental Agencysdeinition o water stress is when the demand or water exceeds the available amount during a certain

period or poor quality restricts its use. Water stress causes deterioration o reshwater resources interms o quantity (aquier over-exploitation, dry rivers, etc.), and quality (eutrophication, organic matterpollution, saline intrusion, etc.).

The most widely used measure is the Falkenmark indicator or water stress index (Falkenmark, Lundqvistand Widstrand, 1989). They proposed 1,700 m3 o renewable water resources per capita per year asthe threshold, based on estimates o water requirements in the household, agricultural, industrial andenergy sectors, and the needs o the environment. Countries whose renewable water supplies cannotsustain this igure are said to experience water stress. When supply alls below 1,000 m3 a countryexperiences water scarcity, and below 500 m3 absolute scarcity.21

20 See State Hydrological Institute of the Soviet Union.1974, World Water Balance and Water Resources of the Earth;

Lvovitch. 1974. World water resources and their future. Baumgartner and Reichels. 1975. World Water Balance.Germany..

21 Rijsberman, F. R. 2005. Water Scarcity: Fact or Fiction? Proceeding of the 4th International Crop Science Congress,26 September - 1 Octobor 2004. Brisbane, Australia. Published in CD-Rom. Website: www.cropscience.org.au.
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The reshwater resources per capita o the world are shown in Figure 5. According to the map, thereshwater resources per capita o the world are the maximum 10,000 m 3 or more in South America,Russia, Australia and some parts o Arica. Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and Jordan areplaces where reshwater resources per capita are less than 1,000 m3.

Based on the IHP-UNESCO method o water resource calculation the net balance between natural waterresource minus withdrawals or the demand o principal sectors o water use, developed a water resourcevulnerability index. According to this index a country is in water scarcity i its annual withdrawals arebetween 20-40% o annual supply, and severely water scarce i this igure exceeds 40%. From Figure 5it can be seen that reshwater distribution around the world is quite uneven. The Middle-East and somecountries o Arica ace acute water shortage (Wol, 2001). Freshwater resources are inite and should beused properly to avoid its shortage in the uture.

Figure 5: Freshwater Resources Per Capita of the World

Source: http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-freshwater-resources.htm

According to the World Business Council or Sustainable Development, water stress applies to situationswhere there is not enough water or all uses, whether agricultural, industrial or domestic. Deiningthresholds or stress in terms o available water per capita is a complex process because it involvesassumptions about water use and its eiciency. It has been proposed that when annual per capita

renewable reshwater availability is less than 1,700 m

3

, countries begin to experience periodic or regularwater stress. Below 1,000 m3, water scarcity begins to hamper economic development and humanhealth and well-being.

A major actor behind this is ast growing populations. In 2000, the world population was 6.2 billionand in 2011 it will be 7 billion. The UN estimates that by 2050 there will be an additional 3 billion peoplewith most o the growth in developing countries that already suer water stress.22 Thus, water demandwill increase unless there are corresponding increases in water conservation and recycling o this vitalresource (Wol, 2001).

The rate o poverty alleviation is increasing especially within the two population giants o China andIndia. However, increasing aluence inevitably means more water consumption: rom needing cleanreshwater and basic sanitation service, to demanding water or gardens, car washing or private

swimming pools.

22 Asian Development Bank, 2007.Asian Water Development Outlook.
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Business activity ranging rom industrialization to services such as tourism and entertainment continuesto expand rapidly. This expansion requires increased water services including both supply and sanitation,which can also lead to more pressure on water resources and natural ecosystems.

The trend towards urbanisation is accelerating. Small private wells and septic tanks that work well

in low-density communities are not easible within high-density urban areas. Urbanisation requiresnew investment in water inrastructure in order to deliver water to individuals and to processthe concentrations o wastewater both rom individuals and rom business. These polluted andcontaminated waters must be treated as they pose unacceptable public health risks.

Climate change is having signiicant impacts on water resources around the world because o the closeconnections between the climate and hydrological cycle. Rising temperatures will increase evaporationand lead to increases in precipitation. Both droughts and loods may become more requent indierence regions at dierent times, and dramatic changes in snowall and snowmelt are expectedin mountainous areas. Climate change could also mean an increase in demand or irrigation, gardensprinkler and even swimming pools.

Due to expanding human population, competition or water is growing such that many o the worlds

major aquiers are becoming overdeveloped. This is due both to direct human consumption aswell as agricultural irrigation by groundwater. Millions o pumps o all sizes are currently extractinggroundwater throughout the world. Irrigation in dry areas such as Northern China and India is suppliedby groundwater, and is being extracted at an unsustainable rate. Cities that have experienced aquierdecline between 10 to 50 meters include Mexico City, Bangkok, Manila, Beijing, Madras and Shanghai.23In many places o the world, groundwater is being used at a aster rate than it can be replenished. Eveni some water remains available, it costs more and more to capture it.

Water pollution has been one o the main concerns o the past ew decades, which aggravates waterstress, and this issue will be revisited in the chapter on water management. The governments o manycountries have striven to ind solutions to reduce this problem through policy measures such as polluterpays24 and ines, to overcome usage patterns underlying the pollution.

1.5 Water and Conflict

Discussion surrounding the linkages between the use o natural resources and conlicts, involvesmultiple ocus areas and themes. There is increasing work on water and conlict studies 25 with strongemphasis on security and military threats. However, it is interesting to note that the environment wasnot considered as an independent actor in the traditional agenda o conlict studies26 and thereore,databases on international conlictive interactions and events such as International Crisis BehaviorProject, Conlict and Peace Data Bank or the Global Event Data System27 do not contain categories thatcan indicate a relationship between water pressure and conlict. This is despite considerable historicalrelections on how land and water access claims have been sources o colonialism and wars throughouttime. Although, the Security Database on Water and Conlicts28 rom the Paciic Institute is a more

speciic resource that considers the environment rom a geopolitical context and provides categorieson water conlict, with events such as violent disputes o the two Sumerian city states o Lagash and

23 Foster, S.S.D. and Chilton, P.J. 2003. Groundwater the processes and global significance of aquifer degradation.

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. Vol. 358, pp. 19571972.

24 Refer to an analysis of polluter pays in ECCAP WG7 report.

25 Green Cross International, Pacific Institute, Worldwatch Institute, Woodrow Wilsons Center, Trudeau Center forPeace and Conflict Studies of the University of Toronto, etc.

26 From the Latin for to clash or engage in a fight, a confrontation between one or more parties aspiring towards

incompatible or competitive means or ends... UN University for Peace: 2005. A Glossary of Terms and Concepts inPeace and Conflict Studies.

27 Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland http://www.cidcm.umd.edu. Azar, Edward E. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/

icpsrweb/ICPSR

28 Peter H.Gleick:. 2008. Water Conflict Chronology. http://worldwater.org/chronology.html
http://www.cidcm/http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/http://worldwater.org/chronology.htmlhttp://worldwater.org/chronology.htmlhttp://www.icpsr.umich.edu/http://www.cidcm/


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Umma on diverted water dating back to 2500 BC, and the threat o a terrorist attack to the Warsak Dam,Pakistanis main water supply inrastructure, considered in similar vain. Though, in the irst case waterwas the casual actor o conlict, in the latter, water is merely a tool o hostage situation in a milieu oexisting conlict. It is established that countries that cooperate in general also cooperate over water,while countries with overall unriendly relations are also unriendly over water issues (Yoe et al., 2009).

Thereore, the question is whether and when water stress could cause a conlict.

Environmental security is critical or every society and this notion has been expanding.29 I we reer toseveral authoritative reports and studies,30 the concept o security is no longer the sole prerogativeo interstate aairs and besides its traditional areas o ocus, such as national security or integrity opolitical borders granted by military and diplomatic sources, but it considers human and environmentaldimensions as well. For example, a recent Report o the UN Secretary-General on Climate Changeand Its Possible Security Implications (A/64/350 rom 11 September 2009) addressed this issue rom aperspective o interdependence between human vulnerability (ood security and human health) andnational security (statelessness, domestic and international conlict on natural resources and inability tosustain stability), urther indicating potential areas that could aect security. This redeined position onsecurity as an aggregated per-capita based water resource calculation, accorded with more advancedapproaches on estimation o water resource such as Water Resource Vulnerability Index (1991), Physicaland Economic Scarcity Indicators (1998), Water Poverty Index (2003)31 and Index o Drinking WaterAdequacy.32 Besides these indicators o human vulnerability,33 there are two approaches are emerging,namely the River Basin Index and Minimum Environmental Flow to secure an environmental use owater.

A new register o transboundary river and lake basins 34 in the world, updated by the Oregon StateUniversity in 2002,35 has listed 263 international river basins that cover 47% o the earths land surace. Atotal o 145 nations include territory within international basins. Twenty-one nations lie in their entiretywithin international basins, and a total o 33 countries have greater than 95% o their territory withinthese basins (Wol et al., 2003). Asia alone has 5736 listed international river basins that cover 40% othe continent. Wherein, the Aral Sea, Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna, Indus, Mekong and Tarim lowacross six and more countries each. Another 14 countries in this region also have a territorial share o

three to our international river basins. The scope o competing interests over water include annuallyincreasing demands rom domestic, municipal, agricultural and economic users, socio-economic andpolitical disparities between riparian countries, and the right to exploit natural resources within theirown jurisdiction in relation to interests o lower riparian countries on natural low o a river.

In the region there has not been a ormal declaration o war over water, and no countries have voluntarilyuniied into one nation over water. For the years 1948-1999, cooperation over water, including thesigning o treaties, outweighed overall conlict over water and violent conlict in particular. Out o 1,831events, 28% were conlictive (507 events), 67% were cooperative (1,228), and the remaining 5% wereneutral or non-signiicant. O the total events, more than hal (57%) represented verbal exchanges,

29 Refer to ECCAP WG7 report on Energy Equity and Environmental Security.

30 Brundland Commission. 1987. Report on Environment and Human Development. True security cannot be achieved bymounting buildup of weapons (defense in a narrow sense), but only by providing basic conditions for solving non-military

problems which threaten them. Our survival depends not only on military balance, but on global cooperation to ensure

a sustainable environment. See also UN High-level Panel. 2004. Report on Threats, Challenges and Change. Alsoconsider http://www.iisd.org/ecp/es

31 Rijsberman, F. R. 2005. Water Scarcity: Fact or Fiction? Proceeding of the 4th International Crop Science Congress,

26 September - 1 Octobor 2004. Brisbane, Australia. Published on CD-Rom. Website: www.cropscience.org.au.

32 Asian Development Bank. 2007.Asian Water Development Outlook.

33 There is further general discussion of energy equity and environmental security in ECCAP WG7 report, See

http://www.unescobkk.org/rushsap/energyethics/eetwg7

34 See reports for standard definitions of international river basins.

35 International Program on Water Conflict Management and Transformation http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.

edu/database/interriverbasinreg.html

36 TWINBASIN: Promoting Twinning of River Basins for developing Integrated Water resources Management Practices

http://www.cawater-info.net/twinbasinxn/asia
http://www.iisd.org/ecp/eshttp://www.cropscience.org.au/http://www.unescobkk.org/rushsap/energyethics/eetwg7http://www.transboundarywaters.orst/http://www.cawater-info.net/twinbasinxn/asiahttp://www.cawater-info.net/twinbasinxn/asiahttp://www.transboundarywaters.orst/http://www.unescobkk.org/rushsap/energyethics/eetwg7http://www.cropscience.org.au/http://www.iisd.org/ecp/es


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either mildly conlictive or cooperative. Yoe (2009) identiied six issues - water quantity, inrastructure,joint management and hydropower - as dominant. Cooperative events concerned a slightly widerrange o issues than conlictive events, with a more dramatic dierence at the extremes o the scale.They considered international reshwater treaties as the most cooperative event, with emphasis onwater quality and quantity, hydropower, joint management and economic development. The extreme

conlicts were extensive military acts, concerning quantity and inrastructure exclusively. No singleindicator explained conlict/cooperation over water, including climate, water stress, governmenttype, and dependence on reshwater resources or agriculture or energy. Yoe ound that even thoseindicators that showed a signiicant correlation with water conlict, such as high population density, lowper capita GDP, and overall unriendly international relations, explained only a small percentage o thevariability in the data in their database. Overall, the most promising sets o indicators or water conlictwere those associated with rapid or extreme changes in the institutional or physical systems within abasin (e.g., internationalization o a basin, large dams) and the key role o institutional mechanisms,such as international reshwater treaties, in mitigating such conlict.

The UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use o Transboundary Watercourses and InternationalLakes incorporates the right o equitable use o international watercourses with accountability viaconsideration o inter and intra-generational equity. The UN 1997 Convention on the Law o the Non-Navigational Uses o International Watercourses (known as New York Convention)37 set equitable andreasonable utilization and participation as a general principle to be applied in non-navigational use ointernational watercourses, strongly emphasizing that mutual cooperation and participation amongriparian states is a duty, which should be based on sovereign equality, territorial integrity, mutualbeneit and good aith in order to attain optimal utilization and adequate protection o an internationalwatercourse (Article 8.1). In determining what is a reasonable and equitable manner, the UN Conventionprovides a list o actors38 that must be considered and the weight to be given to each actor is to bedetermined by its importance in comparison with that o other relevant actors. In determining whatis a reasonable and equitable use, all relevant actors are to be considered together and a conclusionreached on the basis o the whole (Article 6.3). However, in case o conlicts between dierent actorsand the absence o agreement or custom to the contrary, no use o an international watercourse enjoysinherent priority over other uses (Article 10.1) with due regard o vital human needs (Article 10.2).

Thomas R. Odhiambo, past president o the Arican Academy o Sciences, said that: The art and practiceo equitable distribution o and access to reshwater or all people in the 21st century, as a undamentalhuman right and international obligation, is the mother o all ethical questions o all transboundarynatural resources o a inite nature (Krimsky, 2005). Water rights have been discussed and assigned ormillennia under dierent cultures (Barraque, 2004). The rights usually relected the ethics o the day,which at times was inconsistent with our modern norms o ethics.

37 The UN 1997 Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, Article 5.1:

Watercourse States shall in their respective territories utilize an international watercourse in an equitable andreasonable manner. In particular, an international watercourse shall be used and developed by watercourse States

with a view to attaining optimal and sustainable utilization thereof and benefits therefrom, taking into account the

interests of the watercourse States concerned, consistent with adequate protection of the watercourse. Article5.2: Watercourse States shall participate in the use, development and protection of an international watercourse

in an equitable and reasonable manner. Such participation includes both the right to utilize the watercourse andthe duty to cooperate in the protection and development thereof, as provided in the present Convention. http://

untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/8_3_1997.pdf

38 Article 6: Factors relevant to equitable and reasonable utilization:

(a) Geographic, hydrographic, hydrological, climatic, ecological and other factors of a natural character;

(b) The social and economic needs of the watercourse States concerned;

(c) The population dependent on the watercourse in each watercourse State;

(d) The effects of the use or uses of the watercourses in one watercourse State on other watercourse States;

(e) Existing and potential uses of the watercourse;

(f ) Conservation, protection, development and economy of use of the water resources of the watercourse and the

costs of measures taken to that effect;(g) The availability of alternatives, of comparable value, to a particular planned or existing use.
http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/8_3_1997.pdfhttp://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/8_3_1997.pdfhttp://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/8_3_1997.pdfhttp://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/8_3_1997.pdf


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Conlicts and tensions over water are actually most likely to arise within national borders, such as in thedownstream areas o distressed river basins. Areas such as the lower regions o Chinas Yellow River orthe Chao Phraya River in Thailand, or example, have already been experiencing water stress or severalyears. Additionally, certain arid countries, which rely heavily on water or irrigation, such as China, India,Iran, and Pakistan, are particularly at risk o water-related conlicts.

Technology has allowed humans to exploit natural resources better in order to increase ood production,however, there are a inite number o resources on the planet, thereore there is an upper bound to theamount o ood that can be produced. Similarly, there is an upper bound to the amount o humansthe planet can support as humans depend on ood production, and the resources to sustain that. Associeties get closer to these limits, we can expect more conlicts to emerge.

1.6 Water, Culture and Religion

The above sections review water basics, water uses and water stresses, mainly rom a scientiic aspect.The 2006 World Water Day (WWD) theme was Water and Culture, which has drawn attention to theact that there are as many ways o viewing, using and celebrating water according to dierent culturaltraditions. Water is at the heart o many religions and is used in dierent rites and ceremonies otenbeing held sacred. Water has also been represented in art or centuries in music, paintings, writing andilm. Cultural traditions, indigenous practices and societal values determine how people perceive andmanage water, and provide useul reerences or water ethics construction.

The UNESCO Water Portal Weekly Update No.12239 published in December 2005 the ollowing acts andigures about water religions and belies:

1) Water plays a central role in many religions and belies around the world: water is the source olie and represents (re)birth. Water cleans the body and by extension puriies it. These two mainqualities coner a highly symbolic even sacred status to water. Water is thereore a key elementin ceremonies and religious rites.

2) Water is oten perceived as a god, goddess or divine agency in religions. Rivers, rain, ponds, lakes,glaciers, hailstorms or snow are some o the orms water may take when interpreted and incorporatedin cultural and religious spheres.

3) Religious water is never neutral and passive. It is considered to have powers and capacities totransorm this world, annihilate sins and create holiness. Water carries away pollution and puriiesboth in a physical and symbolical sense. Water is a living and spiritual matter, working as a mediatorbetween humans and gods. It oten represents the border between this world and the other.

In Buddhism, water is used in Buddhist unerals. It is poured and overlows into a bowl placed beore themonks and the dead body. As it ills and pours over the edge, the monks recite As the rains ill the riversand overlow into the ocean, so likewise may what is given here reach the departed.

In Christianity, water is intrinsically linked to baptism, a public declaration o aith and a sign o welcome

into the Christian church. When baptized, one i ully or partially immersed in water, or ones head maysimply be sprinkled with a ew drops o water. The sacrament has its roots in the Gospels, wherein it iswritten that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. In baptism, water symbolizespuriication, the rejection o the original sin.

In Hinduism, water is imbued with powers o spiritual puriication or Hindus, or whom morningcleansing with water is an everyday obligation. All temples are located near a water source, and ollowersmust bathe beore entering the temple. Many pilgrimage sites are ound on river banks; sites where twoor even three rivers converge are considered particularly sacred. Hindu pilgrims travel thousands omiles to collect a bottle o water rom the headwaters o the sacred Ganges River, and they proudlydisplay the bottle in their homes or the rest o their lives. An important part o ritual puriication inHinduism is the bathing o the entire body, particularly in rivers considered holy. In Varanasi, India,60,000 Hindus bathe in the Ganges River every day.

39 http://www.unesco.org/water/news/newsletter/122.shtml
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In Islam, water serves above and beyond all or puriication. The irst and most important involveswashing the whole body. It is obligatory ater sex, and recommended beore the Friday prayers andbeore touching the Koran. Beore each o the ive daily prayers, Muslims must bathe their heads, washtheir hands, orearms and eet. All mosques provide a water source, usually a ountain, or this ablution.When water is scarce, ollowers o Islam use sand to cleanse themselves, and this is the third orm o

ablution.

In Judaism, Jews use water or ritual cleansing to restore or maintain a state o purity. Hand-washingbeore and ater meals is obligatory. Although ritual baths, or mikveh, were once extremely important inJewish communities, they are less so now. They remain, however, compulsory or converts. Men attendmikveh on Fridays and beore large celebrations, women beore their wedding, ater giving birth andater menstruation. Water is a source o increasing conlict in Jerusalem region, because Israel controlswater supplies or both the West Bank and the Jordan River.

Shinto is based on the veneration o the kami, innumerable deities believed to inhabit nature. Worshipo the kami must always begin by a ritual o puriication with water. This act restores order and balancebetween nature, humans and the deities. Wateralls are considered sacred in Shinto (Smolan and Erwitt,2006).40

The culture o water use is under change, and human behaviour seems to be rapidly altered bycommercial advertising, such as the increasing use o personal showers and bathing in certain countries,which is associated with shampoo commercials. Consumer goods marketing has also led to increasedenergy and resource use.

Culture could also be an avenue or change i a culture o conservation is more widely spread. Changes inethical value are inherently slow in development and reactive in response, and takes time to construct.This is true or water ethics, especially when people have already gotten used to the approaches ocommand and control and economic instruments. Policy options that utilize culture as an agent ochange will be discussed in chapter 4.

40 http://www.worldwaterday.org/page/121
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2. Water Ethics

2.1 Roles of Water Ethics

The topic o water ethics is being increasingly discussed in policies and practices o water resource

management. This report uses the term management rather than access to cover all aspects o water use:access to, utilization, allocation, quality, protection, etc. In this chapter, we explore dierent rameworksor water ethics reerring also to knowledge gained through several case studies that illustrate uses oethical models, and highlight ethical issues that are oten ignored or undervalued in management owater resources, suggesting policy options that can be developed.

The application o ethical concepts has a direct practical relevance in water resource management. I tcan support the decision making process, which is a very complex issue involving a range o scientiicdomains (hydrology, groundwater, precipitation and runo, water quality), and requires simultaneousconsideration rom dierent areas o water use, both rom the supply and demand side (an integratedapproach to water resource management), and their integration with socio-economic aspects. On theother hand, dierent tools and methodologies that are designed to support the knowledge base anddecision making in the water sector are oten technical. Review o state o the art and the application othese methodologies suggest that knowledge supporting tools and methodologies are not restrictedto technical problems as they are also challenged by procedural items associated with stakeholderparticipation, especially at the level o communication with water managers and decision makers.41

In this complex environment with dierent variables, the role o ethics is to provide operationalassistance and conceptualization o dierent perspectives while helping to keep a ocus whether onthe action, the consequences, or the motives, which examine the concepts o rights and duties, oreects and outcomes.42 From this perspective, the precautionary principle or cost beneit analysis orexample, are useul.

Ethics can orm both the source and normative content o a particular decision by providing reasonand justiication. From this perspective, there are several viewpoints o ethics: descriptive ethics is todescribe the view that people have relating to ethical conduct (Macer, 1998), and the case studies andobservations o peoples behaviour provide us a range o data to consider the world view o dierentpersons. There is a need or more research on the gap between stated attitudes to environmental issuesand behavior, however. From the perspective o prescriptive ethics, ethics is a socially accepted moralstandard to deine what you can do and what you cannot do (e.g. behavioral ethics) and/or a standard owhat harm or pain, such as damage, loss, poverty, thirst, etc., can be inlicted upon other moral agents,including human beings (e.g. consequential ethics). In act, our whole lie as individuals, amilies andcommunities is regulated as a matter o course by tacit rules o behaviour and consequences.

2.2 Frameworks for Water Ethics

UNESCO previously examined the question o water ethics through working group meetings organized

under the auspices o the World Commission on the Ethics o Science and Technology (COMEST) andthe International Hydrology Programme (IHP) in 1998. This led to the publication o a series o 14 essays(Priscoli et al., 2004)43 and the report Best Ethical Practice in Water Use (COMEST, 2004) which alsoincluded 5 case studies.

41 Refsgaard, J.C. (ed.) 2005. State-of-the-Art Report on Quality Assurance in modelling related to river basin management.

HarmoniQuA-report, D-WP1-1 http://www.HarmoniQuA.org

42 Macer, D.R.J. 2006.A Cross-Cultural Introduction to Bioethics. Eubios Ethics Institute.

43 Delli Priscoli, J., Dooge, J. and Llamas, R. 2004 . Water and Ethics: Overview. UNESCO International Hydrological

Programme & World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology. Series on Water and Ethics,

Essay 1. Paris, UNESCO,.
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The sub-commission o COMEST argued that, rather than analyzing once more the ethical issues owater management, it should try to promote best ethical practices. They identiied some undamentalprinciples, as ollows:44

Human dignity: or there is no lie without water and those to whom it is denied are denied lie;

Participation: or all individuals, especially the poor, must be involved in water planning andmanagement with gender and poverty issues recognized in ostering this process;

Solidarity: or upstream and downstream interdependence within a watershed continually poseschallenges or water management resulting in the need or an integrated water management approach;

Human equality: or all persons ought to be provided with the basic necessities o lie on an equitablebasis;

Common Good: or water is a common good, and without proper water management human potentialand dignity diminishes;

Stewardship: or protection and careul use o water resources is needed or intergenerational and

intra-generational equity and promotes the sustainable use o lie-enabling ecosystems;

Transparency and universal access to information: or i data is not accessible in a orm that can beunderstood, an opportunity will arise or an interested party to disadvantage others;

Inclusiveness:water management policies must address the interests o all who live in a water catchmentarea. Minority interests must be protected as well as those o the poor and other disadvantaged sectors.In the past ew years the concept o Integrated Water Management (IWRM) has come to the ore andthe means to ensure equitable, economically sound and environmentally sustainable management owater resources;

Empowerment: or the requirement to acilitate participation in planning and management meansmuch more than to allow an opportunity or consultation. Best ethical practice will enable stakeholders

to inluence management.

There has been considerable relection on environmental ethics throughout the world. The adoption othe Universal Declaration o Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR) by all member countries o UNESCOin 2005 ollowed a series o consultation meetings. In these meetings a number o agencies andgovernments called or more ormal codiications o environmental ethics principles that have beenadopted in international treaties and texts (COMEST, 2010).

The UDBHR provides a universally agreed ramework to describe bioethics, which brings together mucho the previous scholarship and recommendations in environmental ethics by describing commonethical principles, and providing a ramework which could be applied or normative ethical relection.Although the UDBHR does not elaborate speciic ethics or environmental application, it includes anumber o consensus statements that can be applied to water ethics. The preamble o the UDBHR states

that it is addressed to States. As appropriate and relevant, it also provides guidance to decisions orpractices o individuals, groups, communities, institutions and corporations, public and private. Thestated aims o this Declaration in Article 2 include:

(g) to saeguard and promote the interests o the present and uture generations;

(h) to underline the importance o biodiversity and its conservation as a common concern ohumankind.

44 World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST) and the International Hydrology Programme(IHP). 2004. Best Ethical Practice in Water Use. UNESCO: Paris,.


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2.3 Principle of Human Dignity and the Right to Water

The UDHR states:

Article 3 Human dignity and human rights:

1. Human dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms are to be fully respected.

2. The interests and welfare of the individual should have priority over the sole interest of science or society.

The UDBHR speciically commits states to provide adequate water in:

Article 14 on Social responsibility and health

1. The promotion of health and social development for their people is a central purpose of governments that

all sectors of society share.

2. Taking into account that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the

fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic

or social condition, progress in science and technology should advance: access to adequate nutrition

and water.

This Article is based on the underlying ethical principle o human dignity, a principle which hasemerged in many reports on ethics in general, relected also in statements relating to the use o water.The question o how to balance the interests o individuals and society, and other non-human users owater is a undamental challenge that is discussed in this report. In essence, since water is essential orhuman lie the human right or water is a undamental human right.

2.4 The Principle of Equity in Availability and Applicability of Water:

The Right to Water

Equity in availability and applicability o water is an important ethical issue at all levels, rom localcommunity to the global scale. Article 2 o UDBHR means that one individual cannot have access to asmuch water as they like to the detriment o others. Further in the UDBHR we read:

Article 10 Equality, justice and equity

The fundamental equality of all human beings in dignity and rights is to be respected so that they are treated

justly and equitably.

There is a need or equity o water rights to be promoted. On 11 December 2008, Mr. Kochiro Matsuura,then Director-General o UNESCO, opened a session on the right to water during the 9th World Summito the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Mr. Matsuura underscored that the right to water entitled access tosuicient, sae, acceptable, physically accessible and aordable water enjoyed without discrimination,and equally by women and men. In real lie, the equity o water rights could be applied in policy asproviding an equal amount o clean water required or human living. Extravagant consumption o water

should not be included in this amount, however, there are greater than 10 old dierences in the currentaverage water consumption igures between people living in dierent countries.

Water is one o the most essential resources or the human being: everyone has a right to water orvarious kinds o usage or living. Thus the human right to water is one part or one item o generalhuman rights, accordingly the water right is

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Aspectos éticos en la gestión del agua

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