Abstract
Water is fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a pre-requisite to the realization of all other human rights.
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Notes
They continue doing so, as Ahmed (1999) has shown us with many examples.
Eck (1987: 110) noted: ‘The running water of rivers is often used ritually for purification … Bathing in the Ganges is said to purify not only the sins of this birth but also those of many previous births’. Feldhaus (1995: 5) showed that this purifying power of the rivers emanates from the fertilizing properties of water that are more important than the cleansing properties. The agricultural communities dependent on rivers attributed feminine qualities to them in rural areas of South Asia. The worship of waters as feminine is a South Asian tradition (Tambs-Lyche, 1999); the goddess of nature is represented as the womb that is revealed in rivers. In western cultures, not water bodies but lands ‘appear as the womb of life, fertile, productive’ (Giblett, 1996: 85), but against this notion, Baartmaans (2000: 4) note, ‘Waters envelop both creation (sŗsti), maintenance and support (sthiti) as well as decay and destruction (pralaya), only to give rise to new creation’.
Rao's (1979) early authoritative book, India's Water Wealth, exemplifies this approach.
For example, according to the UNDP report published in 2001, 14 percent of the population in India does not have access to improved water sources and 67 percent are without access to adequate sanitation facilities. As the population surpasses the 124 billion mark in 2015, almost half of it will be in urban areas of various sizes, making sanitation and water access one of crucial need.
The ‘manufacture’ of scarcity at the discursive level obscures several important aspects of ‘real’ scarcity. One, inequalities often shape access to and control over water. Two, water scarcity is not natural, but instead largely due to anthropogenic interventions, resulting from bad water management and land use practices. The naturalization of scarcity at the discursive level does not help mitigate the symptoms and causes of ‘real’ scarcity. In some cases, ‘real’ scarcity might be exacerbated due to the popular narratives (e.g., water tables might continue to decline if the decrease in groundwater resources is attributed to climate change rather than to uncontrolled extraction). Furthermore, the ‘manufacture’ of scarcity might not result in the creation of solutions appropriate to local needs and conditions.
Gleick notes (200: 39) about these projections: ‘But what will future water demands be? How can they be predicted, given all the uncertainties involved in looking into the future? At the global level, various projections and estimates of future freshwater demands have been made over the past half century, some extending out as much as 60 or 70 years. These projections have invariably turned out to be wrong’.
For example, see UN World Water Development Report, Water for People, Water for Life published in 2003, on the eve of the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto in Japan.
Gujja et al. (2006: 572) note that ‘water conflicts are symptoms of larger issues in water resources management. …implicit in these ‘million revolts’ is a demand for change; first in the ways we think about water and second in the ways we manage it’.
‘Climate change will lead to an intensification of the global hydrological cycle and can have major impacts on regional water resources, affecting both ground and surface water supply for domestic and industrial uses, irrigation, hydropower generation, navigation, in-stream ecosystems and water based recreation. ….The impacts of climate change will depend on the baseline condition of the water supply system and the ability of water resource managers to respond not only to climate change but also to population growth and changes in demands, technology, and economic, social and legislative conditions’ (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Third Assessment Report 2001). The more recent Stern report, The Economics of Climate Change published in 2007, predicts a 20–30 percent decrease in water availability in some ‘vulnerable regions’ such as Southern Africa and Mediterranean with a 2C temperature rise.
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Outlines the core approach of this journal issue to water, people and development
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Lahiri-Dutt, K. Guest Editorial: The quest for water: Rethinking water scarcity. Development 51, 5–11 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100468
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100468