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.