World Water Forum Receives Icy Welcome From Protesters
It is somewhat ironic that the 5thWorld Water Forum in Istanbul opened with protesters clashing violently with police. Predictions of “water wars” between nation-states typically grab the headlines despite limited-to-no evidence for countries going to war over water. As Ken Conca has written in an ECSP Navigating Peace brief, this kind of small-scale, social conflict over water—around privatization, access, pricing, and the human right to water—is the new face of water conflict.