Water Scarcity And The Concept Of Virtual Water
Definition of the main terms and concepts Water scarcity: Many authors proposed several options how the water scarcity should be better explained but there is no commonly agreed definition of this concept. It is an ambiguous term which isn’t easy to be defined. Water scarcity is relative and dynamic concept (UN, FAO 2012, 5). In general, it is understood as the lack of access to the adequate amount of water or when demand for freshwater exceeds supply. Water scarcity can emerge at any level of supply and demand and it can be caused by several factors, first of all: physical lack of water availability to meet demand. Secondly, the level of development of the water-related infrastructure and at last but not at least – institutional development to ensure functioning of water services Annual renewable freshwater m3 /pers. year
The indicator calculates the volume of available water resources for per person per year, within a country or region and based on that it distinguishes between levels of water stress. Below 1700 m3 renewable fresh water, a state is considered to face water stress, if the number is below 1000m3 it’s said that the country/region experiences water scarcity and country has less than 500m3 renewable fresh water per capita then it’s under absolute water scarcity (UN, FAO 2012, 7). It should be also noted, that the Falkenmark indicator does not take into account water quality and accessibility. One more drawback of the indicator is that it disregards artificial sources of fresh water, like desalination factories which can positively alter the volume of available fresh water in the region or country and more countries are using it today to meet their demands for water. There are also different opinions about how much water does human being need daily. According to the United Nations Development Programme Minimum requirement for respecting human rights to water is to have access to minimum 20 liters of clean water per person per day. (UNDP, Human Development report 2006). Peter Gleick who developed “Basic Human Needs Index” argues that to meet his drinking, sanitation and hygiene needs human being needs 50 liters of water per day (Nepomilueva, 2017, 16).
Virtual water: The concept of virtual water was introduced by a British geographer Tony Allan in 1990-s, who was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize in 2008. Since it has been introduced, the concept of virtual water attracts attention of not only scientific communities but also of policy makers. This term refers to the volume of water needed for the production of the product. it is defined as water ‘embodied’ in a product, but not in the real sense (El-Sadek, 2011, 249). The term virtual is used because the final product doesn't contain the amount of water that was used to make a product. Chapagain and Hoekstra aslo define virtual water as “the volume of water required to produce a commodity or service”. For example to produce one ton of chicken meat, pork or beef 3900m3, 4900m3 and 15500m3 freshwater is needed, respectively (global avarage) and for one tone wheat around 1300m3 is required(Chapagain & Hoekstra, 2004). However, it also depends on technology and climate where the product is made. For instance, to grow wheat in Morocco requires ten times more freshwater than grwoing same amount of wheat in France (Fekete, 2013). There are two ways how to define quantity of water for the virtual water concept. In one approach, virtual water is calculated depending on time and place where the product was produced. The second approach understands the virtual water content of the product based on time and place where it was consumed. The second approach helps countries to understand how much freshwater can they save by importing certain product instead of producing it in their countries. Import of virtual water to the region which suffers from the scarcity of freshwater resources can mitigate the pressure on the region's own water resources.
For example, if Morocco decides to import wheat from France, the amount of freshwater needed to grow crops in Morocco can be used for other purposes. In this sense, Virtual water can be seen as an alternative source of water (El-Sadek, 2011, 249). Generally, it’s considered that if virtual water trade takes place from the water abundant region to the water-scarce region for the globe that equals to real water savings. So, virtual water trade can be seen as an instrument to increase global water use efficiency (Hoekstra & Hung, 2002). The idea seems to be promising but it’s not that easy to be implemented in reality because some economic (import-related costs), political (international tensions), cultural (agricultural societies) factors should be taken into account and at last but not least when it comes to the states, usually try to avoid being dependent on other states in terms of, for them vitally important resources. Shared/common water resources between the states: implies the water resources that cross the political borders between two or more states and, therefore, isn't bound with the territory and sovereignty of only one state. This transboundary water resources may exist in the form of rivers, lakes or underground waters. For example, 263 rivers and dozens of lakes in the world are in the boundaries of two or more states (Wolf 1999, 17) Cooperation among states: The concept of cooperation can be understood in several ways, depending on from which field’s perspective it is defined. For example in sociology, cooperation can be simply explained as “shared activity for mutual benefit” or in ecology it can be defind as “mutually beneficiall interaction between living organisms”. In field of international relations one of the most often quoted definition of cooperation between states belongs to an American academic Robert O. Keohane. In 1984, Keohane published his famous work “After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy” in which he analyzed the concept of cooperation.
First of all, he distinguished cooperation from harmony and said that where harmony reigns there is no need for cooperation. Keohane claimed that: “cooperation requires that the actions of separate individuals or organizations – which are not in pre-existent harmony – be brought into conformity with one another trough a process of negotiation which is often referred as policy coordination” (Keohane 1984, 51) In Keohane’s definition, cooperation between states take place when they adjust their actions to preferences of other states and the way in which they do it, Keohane calls political coordination. As for intergovernmental cooperation, Keohane thinks it occurs when the policies actually followed by one government are regarded by its partners as facilitating realization of their own objectives (Keohane 1984, 52). It is noteworthy that one of the main arguments of Keohane developed in his work is that cooperation often fails despite countries having common interests. Conflict and cooperation among states (over transboundary water resources) will be discussed in the following chapters of this paper. Conflict: concept of conflict is elusive and widely used in many different fields with different meanings and for different purposes. The term “conflict” itself originates from the Latin word conflictus and means clash or collision. Very simplified and short definition of conflict is – absense of agreement between parties. Famous sociologist Lewis A. Coser defined conflict as: “… struggle between opponents over values and claims to scarce status, power and resources” (Coser, 1956). Of course, conflict can exist in several forms and dimensions and it can occur at different levels, for instance between individuals, groups, organizations or states. Also the causes or roots of the conflict can be different, as well as the subject over which conflict can emerge.
Another famous sociologist and one of the principal founder of peace and conflict studies – Johan Vincent Galtung explains conflist as: “… dynamic process in which structure, attitudes and behaviours are constantly changing and influencing one another” (Galtung, 1996). The two above mentioned definitions of conflict agrees with the meaning of this term in which it is used in this paper. Conflict in this work is discussed mainly at the state level and is understood as disagreement or controversary between interests of two or more actors (states). As already stated, this paper scrutinizes states’ contradictory interests over transboundaty water resources or at least their perceptions of other party having opposite interests from those of the given state. Interest: is something that concerns, involves, attracts the attention of, or awakes the curiosity and motivates an actor to act. Interests are actors’ underlying reasons and they show why those actors want something. It’s very important to distinguish interests and positions. Parties or actors take positions to accomplish their interests. One of the most basic distinctive elements of Interesets and positions is that Interests are more difficult to change than positions and for every interest there usually exist several positions that can satisfy it (Provis, 1996, 307). Sometimes positions of the parties conflict with each other but that shouldn’t be necessarily understood that their interests are also in opposition. There is a famous example of orange desired by two persons and both of them claimed “I need that orange”.
As both of them needed the orange and none of them wanted to give it up they decided to split it in half. But the point in the story is that one person needed the orange to squeeze it to make juice from it and the other one wanted orange peel to stir scrapings into a cake. Finally, each of them got only a half of the orange that wasn’t enough for them to accomplish their needs. If they had not stuck on their positions and investigated further the interests of other party both of them could get what they needed (orange peel for cake and peeled orange for juice). This example shows that sometimes parties can have adaptable interests that can be negotiated with desired outcome, but they take positions that are in complete opposition to each other. Often this happens because parties take zero-sum approach where they think that a win of other is my lose. “you want an orange that I also want, if you get the orange it’s my loss”. Understanding difference between interests and positions can lead to a successful resolution in conflict and help parties to switch to positive-sum approach, which enables them to satisfy their interests.
