Water: a geopolitical Issue

Water availability or - seen from the opposite - water scarcity increasingly pose challenges that need to be addressed not just in the (near) future but now. The pressure is there in particular as the in-availability of water has immediate effects. Societies (they might be as small as a little village or even smaller) collapse, industrial processes cannot be performed as required, etc. Various reports prove that the outlined scenarios are not scenarios of the future but happen now. For instance the case of Yemen where political turmoil happen for months now [1]. Additional debates and further reports underscore this perspective [2], [3], [4]. With regard to economic/industrial processes it is also recognised that water - its availability - will influence the development of techniques and technologies [5], [6]. It is accepted that comprehensive "transformations", both in terms of society as well as in terms of economy are needed to successfully and sustainably tackle the issue of water availability.

References: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6],