Water Conflicts

The founder of the non-profit Pacific Institute says diplomacy will be needed to avoid future conflicts over water shortages.

photo credit: jpl.nasa.gov

Transcript of the Audio Podcast:

Applying diplomacy to avoid conflicts over water… on this CurrentCast.

International treaties are negotiated to allocate shared water resources between countries. But similar agreements are not available at a sub-national level, so people in different regions or with competing uses are more likely to have conflicts when water becomes scarce.

Peter Gleick is President of the Pacific Institute, a non-profit research group:

Gleick: “We need to take the lessons that we’ve learned at the international level, the tools of diplomacy, the tools of treaties and agreements that allocate water between countries that may share a river and we have to figure out how to apply those tools at the sub-national level as well.”

It’s an issue that will become increasingly urgent in light of climate change.