Reflective post

The purpose of my blog is to examine the link between geopolitical aspect and climate vulnerability by assessing different geographic regions. I have recently been to Africa where the conflicts about freshwater strikes me as being one of the most persistent and alarming issue that societies will face in the next decades. This reflective post is a good way to see how my opinion has changed and progressed. I will also present some aspects I find challenging within this research.

I will update this blog because it is an exciting topic.  I am an affiliate student and English is not my first language. Writing in English is a challenging thing. But the most challenging thing was writing about the link between freshwater and conflicts. Indeed, there is a huge lack of literature about drink water and potential conflicts correlation. There is a lot of research to do in this field. I am considering doing a PhD about this theme.

Further to this, I will reflect on the consequences of my study on my opinion by giving you an example. This example is extracted from comments posted on my blog. These comments are striking my attention because they reflect a way (wrong and naive way) I was thinking before to start my research.  

 The main factor influencing the water access problem is not due to a lack of  technical and financial capability  but by a political lack. Political mismanagement, lack of leadership and lack of central government are realities for several States as Kenya. Throughout my research, I discovered that countries which has developed an efficient political strategy (i.e. Qatar, Singapore) were able to manage and eradicate freshwater conflicts. Considering that economic development can change the situation is a bit naive. The case studies about Israel and California revealed that economic aspect is less relevant since, despite their economic prosperity, they face conflicts linked with freshwater. Moreover, it is difficult to route piping in scattered houses (slums) and even wealthy countries (Sao Paulo in Brazil, Hyderabad in India)  are not spared with this challenging urban planning issue. That's why, in 2014 'the Global Week of water' at Stockholm focused on this problem.

There is a noticeable link between freshwater vulnerabilities and possible future conflicts. This link is rising. To fight this increase, we need to do more research.

Thanks for reading.

Will the water war takes place in California ?

Can you imagine having your water billed by a firm like Barclays or Chanel limited? Alright, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch but private organisations are more and more investing in freshwater infrastructures, pretending that this will help the under-performing public sector (Hall, Lobina and de la Motte, 2007).

Today I want to talk about the battle PUBLIC vs PRIVATE. I will start by asking you something: Would you agree with a monopoly annexation of your tap water? Debra Anderson said NO! Debra Anderson, officially works in a real estate agency in her hometown of McCloud, California. In reality, Debra lets her husband take care of business, and devoted her time and energy to fight against the Nestlé group.

(Hall , Lobina and de la Motte, 2007)

 According to the graph below, it seems that private-sector is widely facing strong public opposition. Privatisation is extensively unpopular mainly because of the feeling that it is profoundly unfair, both in conception and execution. (Birdsall and Nellis, 2002).

One day in 2003, "Nestle had obtained the right to manage water in the city with unlimited freedom. No impact study was made, Nestle get an exclusive hundred years contract, and the right to pump - including the right to raze the old wood factory in the city ” (Debra Anderson). In exchange, Nestlé assured to create 240 jobs, and pay various taxes and fees. In fact, the region is considered as a deprived area (us.gov, 2014).

With some friends and colleagues, she created an association, the McCloud Watershed Council. The Watershed Council brings together citizens, who, in normal times, are completely opposed- including Conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats and environmentalists.

Activists argued thats water is not a commodity, it is an essential element for life, which must remain in the public domain. This is in contradiction to what Nestle’s CEO publicly claimed “water should be privatized, and it is not a human right”. 

In this context can we expect Private-Public water wars in the next decades?