World Water Day - who gets to claim this valuable resource?

Written by Anna Bruni Sabhaney and David Palmer.

Approximately 4,500 years ago, two young statesmen came to blows in the Sumeria region of Mesopotamia. Their squabble lasted more than a century, by which time the young guns were very much the elder statesmen of their city states of Lagash and Umma. So, what could have caused such a prolonged and bitter feud?

Well, the pair fell out over access rights to the local spring. But why fight over a naturally occurring resource? The reality was that without that natural resource, there was no water for consumption, for irrigation, there was no agriculture, there was no commerce, no economy, there was no wine! In short, without that local spring, there was no city state!

Since that neighbourhood dispute in Sumeria all those years ago there has been at least 1,600 conflicts that have been fought over water or where water has been weaponised in some form. The truth is, we have probably been fighting about water longer than any other resource or geo-political issue.

Why does water matter - to life, peace and war?

Anna commented:

"My fascination with water began in 2009, when my Civil Engineering degree and a project with Engineers without Borders took me to a remote village in India, called Pabal. I heard schoolteachers, farmers, doctors and the heads of the village talk about why water mattered to them, to their health, to learning, to eating and to their livelihoods.

"I am grateful that, 15 years later in our Water Group at Buro Happold, I am surrounded by a team of diverse specialists whose passion and focus is to unpack the same water cycle challenges those local leaders shared in Pabal, not just at local neighbourhood scale, but for cities, regions and countries.

"Our team is growing and testing new ideas and strategies (please reach out if you’d like to chat!) but what remains constant with Water Projects is the need to strike a balance between complex and competing priorities and vested interests."

That is what makes for an exciting and fulfilling field to work in, but it is also why water is a political hot potato and why it is key to peace and can be a trigger for war.

Why is it so hard for us to share water equitably?

So why is it so hard to agree on the fair allocation and distribution of water and for all governments and parties to responsibly understand and manage the risks that come with “playing with water”?

Here are 5 key reasons that make it hard for water to be managed responsibly and equitably.

1. Water has its own mind and we can only control parts of the water cycle - Water is an active part of life on earth – it flows, it evaporates, it pours down. Our role and influence are limited. Water is loaned to us, but what you put back into the natural water cycle is not always what you get and there is uncertainty relating to when and where exactly you will get it back.
2. Water sees no boundaries and creates tension among stakeholders – Raindrops are free spirits and don’t acknowledge national boundaries. Natural topographical decide where water accumulates and decide who is responsible for jointly managing it. Managing water across boundaries requires shifting to the concept of “stewardship” and consensus building mentality. It requires budgets for collaboration, agreements on strategies, teams of experts and ideally aligned legislative and enforcement systems.
3. You don’t always get immediate feedback when you invest in water, there is a lag - As humans we are wired to seek instant gratification. Investment in water doesn’t always give us that. If a developer invests in water efficient fittings or proposes a grey-water recycling strategy, benefits may only materialise years later after a project is occupied. In some cases, you might never “see” the benefit.
4. Water is a complex system with many moving parts that are constantly changing - What we do with our natural, industrial and economic activities changes the balance of water. If population grows, water demands shift. If a policy changes or a new budget is created for a city promoting investment in new infrastructure, the proportion of water lost through leakage could reduce. We cannot assess the impact of water only once. It must be an ongoing process.
5. Managing the perception and common understanding of water issues is just as challenging and important as managing the science behind them. There can be a lot of uncertainty relating to water. Although accepted scientific methods have been developed to deal with that uncertainty, not everyone perceives the risk in the same way. “We have no recollection of this site flooding in the past so how do we know for certain it will flood in the future?” is a question we get often and at Buro Happold our team specialises in answering that.

These are all very important factors but they are not the key factor. You see, the real reason our friends in Umma and Lagash fell out so spectacularly 4,500 years ago is that they both recognised that water is power. Without access to that spring, they, quite literally, had nothing else. It is the same today as it was in 2,500BC.

Of course, our friends could have sat around the fire and worked out some sort of agreement as to how the water from the spring might have been shared sustainably and equitably, but that would have required a commitment to share power. And that’s where the real issue is, because we, as a species, have consistently struggled, throughout our history, to find an equitable way of sharing power.

So our call to action today is think about Water and think about the power that comes with access to Water.

More than anything, acknowledge that, with power, comes responsibility. So please, harvest that power to ensure that this most precious of resources is used sustainably, responsibly and with a duty of care to your neighbours. Happy World Water Day to everyone!