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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category Water Security for a Resilient World.
  • New Analysis by Peter Schwartzstein: How Water Strategizing is Remaking the Middle East

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    Water Security for a Resilient World  //  October 27, 2022  //  By Wilson Center Staff
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    In the run up to COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the first summit of its kind to be hosted in the region, water is rising on the agenda, and for good reason. In a new essay for the Wilson Center, Global Fellow Peter Schwartzstein explores how governments across the Middle East are approaching a world with less water – and to what effect. Drawing on a decade of environmental reportage from the Middle East, Schwartzstein sketches out how, why, and with what consequences states have adopted often dramatically divergent strategies.

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  • Water Diplomacy can Learn from Realist Ideas

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    Guest Contributor  //  Water Security for a Resilient World  //  July 19, 2022  //  By Sumit Vij, Jeroen Warner, Mark Zeitoun & Christian Bréthaut
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    As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues and nations are returning to behaviors best explained by realism, we are wrestling with these trends’ longer-term implications on water diplomacy. States are becoming inward-looking and prioritizing national sovereignty. Debates about water and climate are resurfacing, and we should better understand how hard power and inward-looking approaches can impact water diplomacy and cooperation. To inform policymakers about power sensitivities and power games played in diplomacy, water diplomats must rethink the future of water security and peace. They should reexamine leadership styles, cultural sensitivities, and knowledge exchange from the lens of realism.

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  • Using Big Data Analytics for Transboundary Water Management

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    Guest Contributor  //  Water Security for a Resilient World  //  July 28, 2020  //  By Clara Bocchino & Knowles Adkisson

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    Southern Africa has experienced drought-flood cycles for the past decade that strain the ability of any country to properly manage water resources. This dynamic is exacerbated by human drivers such as the heavy reliance of sectors such as mining and agriculture on groundwater and surface water, as well as subsistence agriculture in rural areas along rivers. These factors have progressively depleted natural freshwater systems and contributed to an accumulation of sediment in river systems. In a region where two or more countries share many of the groundwater and surface resources, water security cuts across the socioeconomic divide and is both a rural and urban issue. For example, the City of Cape Town had to heavily ration all water uses in 2017 and 2018, as its dams were drying up.

    New technology, however, brings new opportunities for improved water governance. In Southern Africa, university researchers and government agencies are joining with international development groups and the private sector to explore how big data analytics can improve the management of aquifers that are shared by two or more countries.

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  • A Conversation with Rodolfo Camacho on Using Data for Water Security

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    Friday Podcasts  //  Water Security for a Resilient World  //  Water Stories (Podcast Series)  //  March 20, 2020  //  By Eliana Guterman

    rodolfo podcastWhile there are many uses for global data sets and innovative data analysis technologies, the most important thing, Rodolfo Camacho said in this week’s Water Stories podcast, is not analyzing the data. It’s the collaboration among countries sharing data. Camacho, Project Director at Winrock International and Chief of Party for USAID’s Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP), sat down with Lauren Herzer Risi, Project Director of the Environmental Change & Security Program to discuss the importance of big data and machine learning on improving water security.

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  • Enhancing Water Security and the Role of Diplomacy in Africa’s Mara River Basin and Beyond

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    Guest Contributor  //  Water Security for a Resilient World  //  March 9, 2020  //  By Ladeene Freimuth
    20180726SWP Mara Day2_Neptune_31_4251-3

    This article is part of ECSP’s Water Security for a Resilient World series, a partnership with USAID’s Sustainable Water Partnership and Winrock International to share stories about global water security.

    The Mara River traverses nearly 14,000 kilometers in Kenya and Tanzania, flowing through the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is a vital water source for more than 1 million people in the area, as well as for 2 million zebras and wildebeests. In fact, the Mara River Basin is “one of the most ecologically important basins in the world,” according to Basil Mahayni, Deputy Director of USAID’s Sustainable Water Partnership’s (SWP). Communities in Kenya and Tanzania depend on the Mara River Basin for a variety of needs, including drinking water, livelihoods, and ecosystem preservation. Therefore, water security in this basin is essential to ecological health of the basin and its wildlife and the region’s economic development.

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  • Paying for the Spout: Innovative Financing Could Expand Access to Water

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    Water Security for a Resilient World  //  March 2, 2020  //  By Wania Yad, Amanda King, Kelly Bridges & Thomas Boynton
    asia

    This article is part of ECSP’s Water Security for a Resilient World series, a partnership with USAID’s Sustainable Water Partnership and Winrock International to share stories about global water security.

    Safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are vital for human well-being. However, 1 in 3 people (approximately 2.2 billion) still lack safe drinking water, 4.2 billion do not have access to safely managed sanitation services, and 829,000 people die annually from unsafe water and related sanitation and hygiene around the world.

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  • By, for, and of the People: How Citizen Science Enhances Water Security

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    Water Security for a Resilient World  //  December 10, 2019  //  By Brigitte Hugh
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    This article is part of ECSP’s Water Security for a Resilient World series, a partnership with USAID’s Sustainable Water Partnership and Winrock International to share stories about global water security.

    In the Peruvian Andes, where cropland is irrigated and water availability is variable at best, knowledge of highland hydrology is crucial to survival. However, until recently, the locals did not have adequate information to be able to use their water efficiently. So the community worked with a nonprofit to develop a non-specialist/non-researcher run data-gathering project to monitor the water in the region to optimize its use: in short, they developed a citizen science project.

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  • Glass Half Full? Innovative Technologies Could Increase Global Water Security

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    Water Security for a Resilient World  //  November 21, 2019  //  By Brigitte Hugh
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    This article is part of ECSP’s Water Security for a Resilient World series, a partnership with USAID’s Sustainable Water Partnership and Winrock International to share stories about global water security.

    By 2050, the UN estimates that 52 percent of the world’s population will be at risk for water insecurity. Climate change is threatening water availability through increased temperatures and drought, unpredictable rain, and the growing threat of more pollution. Globally, most wastewater reenters the water cycle without being treated, introducing dangerous unseen particles including pharmaceuticals, diseases, and larger waste products such as plastics.

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