OCEAN'S 5

What International Waters are meant for in today’s World Order?

G.P.S. (4/n)

THE DIVE

[1] GETTING NUMBERS RIGHT

361,132,000 sq. km— the number you might be familiar with. Else, refer to the attached gif, which covers Earth’s ~71% surface. Apart from its crucial role in human and bio life, the knowledge and respect for these waters go far beyond knowing basic trivia facts — understanding the role and position of the ocean in Earth’s systems and its strategic position in the geopolitics of the world order.

[2] THE HOUSE of O

Suppose you own a house: you have your own backyard or a balcony as your extended house, then you’d either decorate it as your botanical garden or use it as an extra space for dumping unused materials. This is what territorial waters and EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) mean now for all concerned states (see picture).

Making it simpler, countries can literally do anything they want to, on their 12 NM water (~backyard) but can use the EEZ only for oil or other mineral extraction purposes (that’s why it's ‘economic’ and ‘exclusive’ to states).

What is beyond EEZ, is the High Seas — which were widely speculated to be lawless waters. These cynical concerns now have an answer: they have legal protection and a country’s jurisdiction still applies. It all depends on 3 basic factors — “…who you are, where you are, and what boat are you on.” 

CAN YOU NOW ‘SEA’ IT?

But why are we talking about International Waters? It's because when you try to take over someone else’s ownership, ‘others’ get concerned: The nautical areas surrounding the Arctic and Antarctica are disputed as multiple countries have claimed sovereignty over the land itself. China columned its virtual claim over the entire South China Sea to lay dominance over the US amidst their trade war. France lays claim over many islands (Overseas France) and never lets go of the surrounding waters. Shias and Sunnis, too, are battling for water on their deserted grounds. Not to forget, India too has been dealing with a lot of water disputes — trans-boundary and interstate.

Influence has its own norm! Either you rule the territories or their waters.

WHAT RUNS BUT HAS NO FEET?

(Title credit: Global Citizen)

“…the world was heading towards disaster, as water could be the main reason for the beginning of the third World War.”

Coming to Riparian nations, the 2015 online media was swarmed with hashtags over water scarcity and how it might be the reason for the next World War. The 261 international rivers pose a major cause of political tensions with poorly developed international laws. A research paper cited historic water conflicts arising the plausibility of future water wars. On the contrary, the subnational disputes are being stated as the victimizers over international waters for causing havoc.

Even if we sideline the Water War speculation, the cumulative impact of human activities (CHI) threatens the ocean ecosystems, affecting marine biodiversity. 

REMEMBERING DARWIN

“As clean, usable water is becoming scarcer, the incentives in capitalism work to commodify it, and work to ensure that the scarcity is an opportunity to make money,” Basav Sen of the Institute for Policy Studies told Earther in an interview. In other words —

What is scarce, we trade!

Evidence for the above tagline — recent inclusion of technology (bandwidth and mobile minutes) in spot markets or the never traded ‘water futures’ being listed as NQH20, why such never-thought-of inclusions? Easy, SURVIVAL INSTINCT precedes INFLUENCE. You trade → You fight → You survive, others get influenced. 

THE DEEP DIVE

But are we looking at your 6 or my 9? The water conflict is just not about survivability, it is a symptom of deeper conflicts rather than a cause. Scott M Moore, the author of the book ‘Subnational Hydropolitics’, discusses with China Dialogue about countries “…lack(ing) good regional-scale governance institutions”. This is to say that —

Water conflict researchers must shift their focus to ‘grounded’ local governance rather than ‘international’ hydropolitical tensions.

INDIA IS HYDROPHOBIC

“India’s reservoirs are losing almost 1.6 million acre-feet of water-storage capacity each year due to sediment build-up”, Yale School of the Environment reported.

There’s no point in repeating stories and cases on water and its scarcity BUT — the Southern Hemisphere is already under a lot of pressure from waters, Indian courts are already flooded with interstate water disputes, and there is too much ambiguity in water mandates. The Hindu tags Indians as non-climatic refugees, but days are not far for the opposite. Not ending on a remorseful note rather a concern that India needs to “heed the wake-up call” else disasters are imminent.