Name the country 1. Columbia2. Ecuador3. Brazil4. Chile5. Argentina

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When I was away - Water supply problemsHow do irrigation programmes effect human

welfare and economic growth?

Water Supply Problems

• Secure water supplies are essential to life and economic growth.

• It supports irrigation, food production and energy generation.

• However water supplies need to be carefully managed to prevent negative impacts on human welfare and economic growth

Aral Sea

Trans-boundary water Conflicts

Trans-boundary issues

• UK annual rainfall

• Imagine what would happen if the UK split into a eastern and western half?

Water Conflicts

• When demand for water overtakes supply there is the potential for conflict.

• Competing demands for irrigation, power generation, domestic use, recreation and conservation can also create tension both between and within countries.

• Conflict is more likely in developing nations where water is vital to feed struggling growing populations and promote industrial development.

Example: USA – inter-regional issues

Question of miss-match between precipitation and usage

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Water Conflicts

• The UN estimate that there is potential for over 300 water conflicts around the world, as rivers, lakes and aquifers struggle to provide sufficient supplies for neighbouring countries.

• Politicians and map makers have not helped as boundaries and boarders do not fit with river catchments.

Increasing conflict in transboundary hotspots

The Murray / Darling basins. Salinisation of farmland, drought – area produces three-quarters of Australia's irrigated crops.

Mexico City is now at serious risk of running out of clean water. 40% of the city's water is lost through leaky pipes built at the turn of the century.

The Zambezi river basin in southern Africa is one of the most overused river systems in the world.

Mali is dependent on the river Niger, which flows from Guinea through Mali to Nigeria. Long stretches of the river are now facing environmental catastrophe as a result of pollution.

Catalonia, where authorities are pressing for the construction of a pipeline to divert water from the Rhone in France to Barcelona, plus diversion of the Ebro to the south

Yellow River - All three rivers feeding China's Northern Plain are severely polluted, damaging health and limiting irrigation.

The Ganges is so depleted that the Sundarban wetlands and mangrove forests of Bangladesh are seriously threatened.

Between 1962 and 1994, the level of the Aral Sea fell by 16 metres.

Major tensions over the River Jordan and River Litani and the aquifers under Israel and Palestine

Dams building along the Euphrates and Tigris is a source of conflict in the Middle East.

Trans-boundary water Conflicts

• Approximately 40% of the world’s population lives in river and lake catchments that fall across two or more countries, and over 90 % live in countries that share basins.

• About 2 billion people worldwide depend on groundwater, which includes approximately 300 trans boundary aquifer systems.

Trans-boundary water Conflicts

• The trans boundary basins and aquifers link populations of different countries and support the incomes and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people worldwide

Agriculture will be the future biggest demand

• A big concern is that shortages in water will intensify the already rising trend of global food prices.

• This is linked to climate change and changes in the predictability of supply, i.e. the rainfall patterns.

Case studies

Your Turn - Research • From the table below choose ONE issue and produce a one

sided fact file on the case study. These can then be shared with the rest of the class. Try to include a map

Location Reason for conflict / pressure point

Tigris – Euphrates

Turkeys GAP project will take a lot of water before it goes downstream and Syria also building dams along the river.

Ganges – Brahaputra

Faraka barrage has reduced flow into Bangladesh from India

Colorado Basin

Different states demand different uses and therefore volumes of water from the river. (WITHIN)

Nile Basin Varied use of water by different countries effecting the flow.

Danube Flows through 17 different countries and provides drinking water for 10million people. How do you manage it?

Murray Darling Basin

Huge issues in Australia of over abstraction by farmers in NSW along the river

Murray Darling Water Conflict

India and Bangladesh water tension Video

• 54 rivers shared between the countries.

• Indian Government control the flow of the Teesta River.

• 315km in India

Question

• How can the need for water create tension and conflict? (10)