The problem of water supply will generate wars
This is what many of the experts on the subject predict and from the data they provide it is more than possible that they are right.
Water is a scarce commodity and almost a quarter of the world’s population faces water shortage problems at least once a year during the dry season.
In developed countries we use water without thinking about how it reaches our home, since it is a service that we take for granted. We spend large amounts of liters on simple activities such as brushing our teeth, showering, etc … without being aware that if we did not have water our situation would be quite desperate.
When there is no water, human displacement occurs with the problems that this generates, and according to predictions by the UN and the World Bank, droughts can cause the displacement of almost 700 million people between now and 2030.
A double phenomenon is taking place, on the one hand the world population is increasing and at the same time the population consumes more and more water, so that throughout the last 20th century water consumption increased twice that of the world population. And the trend continues.
Water, in addition to drinking, is used above all to generate food and has the peculiarity that it flows through rivers, and these rivers cross several countries. And if a country extracts the water from the headwaters of the river, the countries further down are harmed. And this can lead to problems.
This problematic situation is happening now with reservoirs that Ethiopia is building at the beginning of the Nile, and to which other countries such as Egypt and Sudan are opposed because they will be affected and will receive less water than at present.
It happens everywhere. Reservoirs made in Turkey in the basins of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers affect other countries through which these rivers pass, such as Iraq or Syria.
There are people who are experts in this field who warn of the possible problems that can be generated and for this they use information about what happens in the field together with Artificial Intelligence techniques, to predict that possible future.
It is the Water, Peace and Security (WPS) association, which is made up of several NGOs interested in the matter. Periodically they publish a Global Early Warning Tool, which is a document where they predict possible conflicts before they happen; and they do so based on multiple information such as: rainfall in the areas, population density, agricultural production, levels of corruption, etc….
In the following link you can see the Report corresponding to the month of June 2021
https://www.waterpeacesecurity.org/info/global-tool-update-June-2021
I think this is a very good tool if you want to use it in a positive sense, as it announces possible problems based on fairly objective data obtained from the field. And knowing the problems in advance can do something to try to solve them before they happen.
If problems rage and are not resolved, regional disputes can end in more or less local wars with disastrous consequences known to all.
Today technology and information are available to anticipate many problems, and if we do not do so it is because we are more interested in defending particular selfish positions than global solutions.
A shame.
