Blue Wars

The Blue Wars: A term created by Joe Rozza, P.E., BCEE for his book <ins>The Blue Wars: The Rise In Global Competition for Water (And Why You Should Care)</ins> (). The term is used to describe conflicts at various societal levels that arise due to the competition for inadequate available water resources for domestic, industrial and/or agricultural use. These conflicts generally range from:
User versus User
Discrete water users engaged directly with each other in a contentious way competing for inadequate available water resources. Conflicts in this regard can involve multiple participants (i.e., more than two) and take the form of litigation, legal or illegal water acquisition or diversion, sabotage or other acts of violence.
Sub-National Conflict
Sub-national, social-political discord between state/provincial governments due to disagreements regarding the allocation of available water resources and can take the form of discordant policy debates, litigation, hoarding and illegal water diversions, and armed conflict including civil war. These conflicts can include involvement from non-state actors such as academia, non-governmental organizations, influential individuals from civil society, and third party nations with vested interests.
Trans-National Conflict
Trans-national geopolitical conflicts due to disagreements regarding the sharing of water resources that cross or span state boundaries. These conflicts can take the form of litigation, legal or illegal water acquisition, hoarding or illegal diversions of water, sabotage, armed conflict and outright warfare. These conflicts can include involvement of international agencies, non-governmental organizations and third party nations with vested interests in the allocation of the resource. These conflicts can also become embroiled in other geopolitical agreements related to trade, aid, economic cooperation, security agreements and treaties.
Root Causes
These forms of conflict over water can occur in water scarce and water rich geographies anywhere in the world and are not limited to only the developing world. Root causes for these conflicts can include water scarcity, inadequate infrastructure, insufficient public sector management capacity, deficient policy, inadequate funding, poor stewardship of available resources, natural disasters and other factors. Conflicts can escalate faster when conditions are exacerbated by high population growth rates, rapid economic development and changes to the natural systems due to climate change.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu