Gender in Inter-State Water Conflicts
Publisher: Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice
Author(s): Tobias Von Lossow
Date: 2015
Topics: Conflict Prevention, Dispute Resolution/Mediation, Gender, Renewable Resources
Countries: China, Egypt, India, Pakistan
When discussing gender in the context of water and conflict, both politics and research turn a blind eye on the particular and prominent issue of inter-state water conflicts. Worldwide, there are two hundred and sixty-four transboundary watercourses, providing more than sixty percent of the global fresh water resources. These waters are shared by at least two countries. A prominent example is the Nile basin that hosts the highest number of riparian states along a river, namely eleven. Due to the importance for the global water supply, these transboundary waters are often highly disputed among the riparian states that compete for the shared resources, in particular in water scarce regions in Africa, the Middle East, or parts of Asia. Along river basins, such disputes over utilization and distribution of shared water are quite complex. They are, for example, characterized by an asymmetric conflict structure between upstream and downstream states and between countries that are more or less dependent on these particular water resources. Highly sensitive issues like the control over the water or the development of water infrastructure are at the very heart of such conflicts.