Could We Fight Wars Over Water?

Experts warn that water will become the scarce resource over which conflicts will be fought. ANTONIO TONIN urges strong action to prevent wars over water

In the Book of Genesis we learn that our Creator decided that after he had formed the planet, life-supporting water would be the first mandatory resource to be provided, one that would then sustain all living plants, animals, insects and human beings. The rest of creation followed thereafter.

So the ultimate importance of water to sustain life was established forever, and it is still so today, and will be many years into the future.

Therefore it is not unreasonable to state that our standard of valuing everything on this earth should be based on this priceless, precious commodity which is second only to human life in importance.

To accept this standard means that we then have to completely overturn our perceptions of what is of real value in life.

The world recognises such values as power, wealth, economic growth, the constant manipulation of the value of money, but denies the rights of ordinary people and ignores the demands of the environment.

The world values natural resources that don’t sustain life, such as gold, diamonds and silver.

In the preamble to his encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis warns: “Some studies warn that an acute water shortage may occur within a few decades unless urgent action is taken. The environmental repercussions could affect billions of people; it is also conceivable that the control of water by large multinational businesses may become a major source of conflict in this century.”

According to the UN Charter of Human Rights, every human being should have a right to access the resources of the world for survival.

Because the planet and all its resources are, and forever will be limited, it will be necessary for every region to establish how much water — part of its Environmental Capital — it has at its disposal.  Given the modern technology available, this should not be very onerous.

Since the economy of any country is entirely dependent on a constantly available water supply, it is necessary to prioritise the use to which water is put. In any one year, the economy will need to be adjusted according to the amount of water available.

What is indisputable is that the total quantity of available fresh water on this planet is forever limited.

Already there are serious signs worldwide that water shortages are becoming more and more common and this will inevitably lead to dramatic conflicts between communities, regions and countries over access to fresh water.

According to the World Health Organisation, the human body needs about 3 litres a day to stay alive. How do we start to manage the increasingly important task of assuring that each member of the human race will have access to the daily quantity of water needed for survival?

Once each region has established how much of the water component of its Environmental Capital is available, it then needs to determine whether it has enough to sustain the necessary constant/survival economy within the limits of water supply.  Some regions will not have the constant, minimum sustainable amount of water necessary for ongoing survival, in which case it will be necessary for regions with a surplus to assist in making up the shortfall.

System Change

A planet with limited resources, both renewable and non-renewable, can no longer support the neoliberal, capitalist, free market philosophy. To avoid the current competing interests over the ownership and usage of resources, there needs to be a dismantling of the current concentration of wealth in the hands of 1% of the human race, resulting in a much more equitable spread amongst all people.

This leads to a discussion of the state of our world right now.

Water is the most precious, priceless part of the Environmental Capital of the planet. The other major components are the oceans and their depths, rivers, mountains, forests, savannahs, the Arctic and Antarctica and all the animals that inhabit them, including us humans.

Therefore, as we are supposed to be the most “intelligent” species on this earth, of necessity we need to exercise due care and husbandry of our Environmental Capital, keeping it always at a sustainable level.

We have not being very good at this at all, over the past 60 years or so.

By the end of 2016 we had consumed 1,6 times the amount of renewable resources that Mother Nature can provide in any one year.

It is clear that if we continue in this pattern, we will exhaust our Environmental Capital in very short order, thereby precipitating a cataclysmic disaster.

To avoid this we have to subscribe to the idea that the total environment is the real economy, and ordinary people really do matter.

Because it should really be our basic concern, we, the ordinary people, need to take command of our Environmental Capital and treat our resources accordingly, starting right now.

We, the people, need to use our civic power to force our governments into immediate action in as short a time as possible.

To start this process immediately under the current forms of government worldwide requires a very strong call by ordinary people to overcome the bureaucratic inertia and lethargy of the “party political” governing pattern.

However, if we, the people, really want government “of the people, by the people, for the people”, then we must create pressure for a change from the current forms of government worldwide, which have been corrupted by power-hungry party politics and venality.

There is an urgent need for all world governments to immediately put in place the necessary laws, rules and regulations to enforce the mandatory raising of the process of recycling all possible materials for further use, and to encourage the financing of research into the latest techniques of doing so.

New innovation needed

Another very important factor would be the implementation of the design philosophy that all products be designed and manufactured to last as long as possible, for the use they are meant for.  The world no longer has space available for landfill sites, so we must find technological and scientific ways of identifying and extracting all recyclable materials from such sites.

On September 25, 2015, the United Nations adopted a new sustainable development agenda consisting of 17 Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.  Each goal has specific target benchmarks to be achieved over the next 15 years.

For the attainment of these goals everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society and all people like us.  Do you want to get involved?  You can start by telling everyone about them.

The details of each goal are presented at www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/news/communications-material

These 17 Sustainable Development Goals have been signed and agreed to by 184 of the world’s countries, and now come into force. It is significant that all these goals are completely and entirely forever dependent on water for successful implementation.

What was an amazing announcement at the COP 22 in Marrekesh in November 2016, was the alerting of the world community by the UN Environmental Group that the CO2 emission levels agreed to in December 2015 at COP 21 need to be immediately reduced by a further 25%.

This dramatic announcement was commented on by the UN secretary general, Pope Francis and the Patriarch Bartholomew, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church. No other world leaders made any mention of this, nor did major media sources.

It should at least have provoked an alarming reaction from world leaders that all their Sustainable Development Goals objectives over the next 14 years need to be immediately, seriously recalculated.  And at the same time the importance of this requirement must be conveyed to every living human being — which clearly did not happen.

Even given the urgency to make the environmental changes, we must still pressure our governments to take immediate action, if this planet is to be left in a peaceful, sustainable state for future generations. Is it also about time that all Christians took seriously Christ’s New Testament commandments: Love God with your whole mind, body and soul; and love your neighbour as you love yourself.

We all need to develop a state of mind in which we first of all respect ourselves, and every other member of the human race, as equals and cohabitees of our world, as well as respecting our beautiful and mysterious, sustaining environment.

We need to take the time to give ourselves the opportunity to ponder the wonders of our world and the myriad interrelating, interdependent ecosystems that keep us alive every day, in spite of the neglect and abuse we hurl at them.

If instead, we promoted and encouraged the study of the deeper meaning of life through the humanities — such as the various practices of meditation as espoused by the major religions of the world, the intense scrutiny of the fine art of the past centuries, the unbelievable descriptions of the human mind found in the great literature of the world, and the emotional display of  incredibly beautiful music by the classical composers — we may just be able to plumb the innermost depths of our souls and head towards a more peaceful life.

What would it profit a man/woman if he/she gained the whole world, but suffered the loss of his/her soul?

Antonio Tonin writes from East London, South Africa