Competition for water: international case studies of river management and conflict resolution

Abstract

Escalating human demands for river water in most parts of the world are intensifying, resulting in reduced or severely altered flows, hydrological alterations of groundwater and surface water drainage patterns, alienation of floodplain habitats and varying degrees of water pollution. In competition with humans for this water is the 'environment', whose water requirements are difficult to measure (e.g. Richter et al. 1997) and, in many cases, even harder to defend against the pressures of economic rationalism and social desires (Palmer et al. 2000). There are innumerable examples of this competition for water worldwide, with varying degrees of .social recognition of the aquatic environment's 'rights' to water and its necessity for the long term survival of adjacent ecosystems.