Water and Peace are intimately connected

This year’s World Water Day, which falls on 22 March, has as its theme ‘Leveraging water for peace’. This theme underlines the fact that water management projects can have wider social benefits, improving troubled relations between communities and providing valuable experience of cooperation and peaceful negotiation. This post relays an article from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

In theory, reducing water scarcity should reduce conflict risk. Technical solutions that increase supply and decrease demand can mitigate competition that might otherwise increase the risk of conflict.

However, peace is complex. A purely technical fix may have limited impact on conflict risk, especially in the long term. Water scarcity itself does not cause conflict; conflict only happens if water scarcity exacerbates existing social, cultural, political or economic fault lines. Thus, successful and sustainable peace efforts must address these root causes. Otherwise, the next time there is a problem involving water access, conflict could return.

Water technology developers such as Drupps, who make airborne industry wastewater recyclable without losing money while doing it, can help contribute to this problem-solving by making useful methods available. But collaboration is crucial, not least with commercial water users and manufacturers who often have the means and ability to implement such technology.

The SIPRI article in its entirety: https://bit.ly/3wqQYW3

About SIPRI

SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. Established in 1966, SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources. More info: https://www.sipri.org/