First, efforts to increasethe productivity of water use—output per unit of water—are key to defusingtensions as water stress
worsens. Since agriculture accounts for two thirds ofwater use worldwide, and 80 to 90 percent in many developing countries,increasing the productivity of irrigation water is particularly critical. Asthe costs of desalination decrease, the desalting of contaminated aquifers andof seawater may generate new drinking water supplies and thereby ease tensionsin water-scarce regions as well. Some of the most tense water disputes of the20th century simmered for decades before the rival parties resolved theirdifferences. India and Bangladesh ended a 20-year dispute in 1996 with thesigning of a treaty that sets out specific terms for sharing the dry-seasonflow of the Ganges. After their independence in 1947, India and Pakistan nearlywent to war over the
waters of the Indus, which were awkwardly divided by thenew political borders. The Indus Waters Treaty survived two wars between thesignatories and allowed each to pursue its agricultural and economic planswithout risking the ire of the other. "The Near and Middle East are thezones where there is the greatest threat," it said. Other big flarepoints inthe region are Turkey's plan to build dams to store the waters of the Tigrisand Euphrates rivers, a scheme that is strongly opposed by Syria and Iraq; theIraq-Iran row over the Shatt al-Arab waterway; and disputes over the use ofwater from the Nile, embroiling Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. In southern Asia, thebiggest problem is the India-Pakistan dispute over the Indus, while in centralAsia "there are high risks of conflict" between Uzbekistan,Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan over the Amu Daria and Syr Daria riversand the already depleted Aral Sea, the PricewaterhouseCoopers study said. World Water Day seeks thisyear to encourage awareness of "simple but inexpensive" measures toimprove the cleanliness of water in the developing world. In the arid MiddleEast and North Africa, where water symbolizes communal security, the tendencyis for water to be perceived as a prime factor in determining the course ofregional
international relations. Since about 90% of the usable water in theregion crosses one or more international borders, such an assumption isunderstandable. Kuwait's excessive pumping of the oilfield beneath theIraq-Kuwait border was in this case cited as the reason for the invasion. Iraq'sinvasion of Kuwait, the reactions of its neighbours and especially theresponses of the United States and the other industrialized economies werehistoric in their confirmation of this contention.