Water increasingly at the center of conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East
Los Angeles TimesJan 03
UN: Global Water Crisis Fueling More Conflict
The Facts
In its 2024 World Water Development Report released Friday, the UN said 2.2B people across the globe have zero access to clean drinking water, while 3.5B don't have access to safe sanitation.
While droughts impacted over 1.4B people between 2002 and 2021, about half of the global population experienced water scarcity for at least part of the year, and a quarter faced "extremely high" levels of water stress in 2022.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Water wars have occurred throughout the world for millennia, but the increasing dangers posed by climate change are making things worse. Water as a cause and weapon of war has occurred recently in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and even the US. As opposing factions struggle over an increasingly narrowing water supply, these groups resort to bombing water sources, killing environmental activists, or launching lawsuits over who gets to control this life necessity.
Establishment-critical narrative
The term "water war" is based on false assumptions and used for fear-mongering. Even though no two countries have ever gone to war over water, those propagating this falsehood choose to conflate water as a tool in war, and even the cause of it. While transboundary rivers must be managed, water is still abundant and cheap, as it always has been, and governments are continuing to enhance their waste management systems to ensure this renewable source of life remains plentiful.
Nerd narrative
There's a 78% that the price of water on the NQH20 will hit $2.5K (2021 USD) per acre-foot by 2050, according to the Metaculus prediction community.