Hydropolitics

An in-depth look at the people and institutions connected with the Itaipoe Dam, the world's biggest producer of renewable energy, Hydropolitics is a groundbreaking investigation of the world's largest power plant and the ways energy shapes politics and economics.ics.

With more than 50 percent of the world's landmass covered by river basins shared by two or more states, competition over water resources has always had the potential to spark violence. And growing populations and accelerating demands for fresh water are putting ever greater pressures on already scarce water resources. In this wide-ranging study, Arun Elhance explores the hydropolitics of six of the world's largest river basins. In each case, Elhance examines the basin's physical, economic, and political geography; the possibilities for acute conflict; and efforts to develop bilateral and multilateral agreements for sharing water resources. The case studies lead to some sobering conclusions about impediments to cooperation but also to some encouraging ones--among them, that it may not be possible for Third World states to solve their water problems by going to war, and that eventually even the strongest riparian states are compelled to seek cooperation with their weaker neighbors.

"It's often claimed that future wars will be fought over water. But while international water conflict is rare, it's common between sub-national jurisdictions like states and provinces. Drawing on cases in the United States, China, India, and France, this book explains why these sub-national water conflicts occur - and how they can be prevented"--

As well as a major overview of the global situation and problems involved, there are authoritative case studies of particular river systems in three continents, including the Nile Valley, the Tigris and Euphrates, the River Jordan, the Mekong and several cases from South Asia.

Is there enough water on this planet for a global population that will shortly double its present size? The answer is of huge importance for people everywhere, but particularly to the peoples and political leaders of the Middle East and North Africa. As well as explaining the particular issues of conflict in the region, Allan argues that the answer to these problems lies at the global rather than local level. The Middle East Water Question is a major book by one of the world's leading authorities on water issues.

This book provides the first comprehensive assessment of the various issues faced by countries in the European Union, where progressing climate change and urbanization pose significant cooperative challenges in a large number of river basins. Conducting a thorough analysis of the intricate web of EU water governance, it reveals that the hydropolitical stability of the European Union is already at risk. Further, given the structural nature of the shortcomings in EU water policy—e.g. the rigidity of the EU’s founding treaties or the institutional complacency of the European Commission—the book argues that these risks are likely to turn into sources of prolonged conflict, unless EU decision-making bodies take steps to address the new hydrological realities early on.

Water is both an essential resource and a source of disease and conflict in contemporary Africa. And we begin to learn that far distant processes of consumption and pollution can have their impact on the water systems of Africa: global warming produced by the material culture of the first world threatens the weather systems and very survival of developing countries. In this context, this volume – the product of an expert meeting at Cornell University’s Institute for African Development – traces and tracks the dynamics of the contemporary hydropolitics of Africa. The volume contains a variety of approaches to the study of the organisation of water within Africa ranging from technical essays on water borne diseases, through institutional analyses of the legal and political arrangements around the distribution of water to social policy analyses of the unmet demand for water amongst Africa’s poor. Taken as a whole, the volume provides the reader with a useful reference work on the contemporary hydropolitics of Africa whilst simultaneously providing a lively introduction to a critical and much neglected area of African development policy.