Riddle me This…

What can travel around the world without leaving its

corner?
Starter
⬩ Read the article provided about Vancouver’s
water crisis in 2015.
⬩ Answer the questions that follow.
⬩ We will discuss your responses as a class.
Unit 2 – Health
and Disease

Hydropolitics
 Learning Objective:

✔ To learn about hydropolitics.

Learning
Outcomes:
✔ Name at least 5 international river basins and the
associated riparian countries.
✔ Describe why conflict potential is high in these
countries.
✔ Evaluate four ways to increase the water supply
Conflict Potential = High
⬩ Water is a strategic resource – a resource that is
considered to be essential to the maintenance of the
economy – and is therefore of political significance.

⬩ Some believe that water will become a

tradable commodity in the future; nations with a surplus of
this vital resource will hold power over those with a
deficit.
More Water Needed!
⬩ Research shows that water insecurity will increase in the
future.
⬩ Demand, especially from agriculture, must increase to feed
growing populations.
⬩ Rising living standards and expectations in developing
nations will also increase consumption.
⬩ Currently 1.8 billion people are living in water stressed
countries.
Population growth Reductions because of users
Consumer demand abstracting/polluting upstream, deteriorating
Industrial growth quality and impact of climate change
Agricultural demand

DEMANDS? SUPPLY?
Rising Diminishing

Water Flashpoint i.e.

need for management.
DIFFERENT
Pressure and hence
USERS?
tension and conflict may
Conflicting
be over surface flow
demands
and/or groundwater
supplies
Dams and diversions and
International conflicts i.e. basin crosses national loss of wetlands are
boundaries. particularly contested.
Internal conflicts i.e. within a country
Conservation versus exploitation
 River basins currently in dispute
Future disputes forecast
Tigris - Euphrates The Aral Sea, an
Iraq + Syria have concerns that Turkey’s GAP project will divert their inland drainage
water basin, once the
world’s 4th largest
Ob inland lake has
Colorado shrunk since the
Disputes 1950s after the 2
between 7 US rivers feeding it: the
Lake Chad
states and Amu Dayra and Syr
Mekong Darya were diverted
Mexico. The
river is so Ganges for irrigation. By
overused, that it 2007 the sea was
no longer La Plata
10% of original
Okavango Zambezi volume and split into
reaches the sea!.
90% is Orange
2 lakes. The ex-
abstracted before soviet states are in
it reaches conflict: Uzbekistan ,
Mexico Nile is hotly disputed between Ethiopia and Turkmenistan and
Sudan, who control its headwaters, and Kazakstan.
Egypt.
 Riparian Disputes
⬩ There are 261 international river basins, rivers that cross
international boundaries.

⬩ 90% of all countries share water with at least one neighbour.

⬩ Conflict potential between these countries is high as upstream

countries can control the flow.

⬩ 19 basins are shared by five or more riparian countries –

those situated on river banks.
International Basin
s
Danube 17

Congo and Niger 11

Nile 10

Rhine and Zambezi 9

Amazon and Lake Chad 8

Aral Sea, Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna, Jordan, 6

Kura-Araks, Mekong, Tarim, Tigris and Euphrates,
and Volta
Task 1. Riparian Disputes
⬩ Visit this BBC Website
⬩ Study the 12 water flashpoints listed.
⬩ Make a brief summary for 3 water flashpoints, making
sure that you outline the key issues.
Water Wars or just a riot?
⬩ Of all the disputes over water between 1948 and 1998,
most ended peacefully- just 43 involved military acts.
18 involved Israel!
 Increasing Supply
⬩ One of the greatest challenges of the 21st century is to
supply clean water for all. This can be done by:
1. Diverting supplies
2. Increasing storage
3. Restoring lost supplies
4. Water conservation
1. Diverting Supplies
⬩ Water can be transferred between or within
basins from areas of surplus to those
experiencing a shortage.

Examples
⬩ Snowy Mountain Scheme, Australia
⬩ South-North Transfer Project, China
⬩ Mangavat Project, Turkey-Israel
2. Increasing Storage
⬩ At least 45,000 large dams (>15m high/ 3 million m3) have
been constructed to meet energy or water demands. Half of
these were built principally to supply irrigation.
Examples
⬩ GAP, Turkey
⬩ Three Gorges Dam, China
⬩ Hoover Dam, USA
⬩ Akosombo Dam, Ghana
3. Restoring Lost Supplies
⬩ Rapid population growth combined with economic
development has led to unsustainable use of some ‘fossil’
stores.
⬩ Measures can be taken to replenish these stores.

Example
⬩ Aral Sea, Kazakhstan
4. Conserving Water
⬩ Water conservation involves reducing the amount of water
used (i.e. demand) rather than trying to increase water
supplies. This is an important strategy where supplies are
finite.

Examples
⬩[Link]
ays-away-from-running-out-of-water-heres-how-it-averted-the-
crisis/

⬩ [Link]

⬩ [Link]
-a-look-at-four-countries-regions
Task 2. Case Study Examples
⬩ Research ONE case study for each of the four schemes.
Some of the schemes are hyperlinked to help you.
⬩ You must have at least one example of each type of
water supply project.
⬩ You can present your findings as you wish.
⬩ Make a brief 5 W’s summary for each project.
⬩ Now, evaluate the success of each project by listing the
costs and benefits.