virtual water interactions in transboundary water
TRANSCRIPT
Virtual water interactions in transboundary water basins: food, water, trade
Francesca Greco King's College
WHY IS VIRTUAL WATER IMPORTANT IN TRANSBOUNDARY
COOPERATION?A WATER-FOOD NEXUS
PERSPECTIVEFrancesca Greco
King’s College London,Department of Geography
Educafè, Politecnico di Milano, 28-29 March 2014
Virtual water is important in transboundary cooperation ….
TWO CASES OF VIRTUAL WATER INTERACTIONS INTO
TRANSBOUNDARY WATER POLITICS: THE WATER-FOOD
INVISIBLE NEXUS
1) The Nile Basin export‐led agriculturalschemes
2) The Disi pipeline in Jordan
THE NILE BASIN
FROM WATER TO VIRTUAL WATER
Average virtual water crop ‘imports’ and ‘exports’ by Nile Basin states from the restof the world, 1998‐2004 (Mm3/y). Source: Zeitoun et al. 2009
POWER –BALANCE SHIFT INTHE NILE BASIN
• foreign direct investments in water and land in Ethiopia and Sudan, dam building plans are partially devoted to irrigation for crop‐export(see Cascao ,2013)
• Irrigation is needed in order to «start» a crop‐export, therefore, a virtual water flow
• Power‐balance shift among the co‐riparian states happened because of potential virtual –water flow creation
CASE 2: THE DISI PIPELINE
THE DISI AQUIFER BETWEEN JORDAN AND SAUDI ARABIA : FROM VIRTUAL ‐WATER TO WATER
BEFORE ( 1980 ‐‐2013 NOW: 2014
Jordan: virtual water «flows» (1996‐2005) in Million cubic meters per yearImport Export Net virtual water import
Green Blue Grey Green Blue Grey Green Blue Grey
4932.9 901.7 877.8 591.6 256.5 197.6 4341.3 645.1 680.2
Total: 6712.4 Total: 1045.7 Total: 5666.6
Net virtual water import (total)5666.6 Million cubic meters per year
Import (total)6712.4Million cubic meters per year
Export (total)1045.7Million cubic meters per year
Elaboration: Francesca Greco 2014. Source: Hoekstra and Mekonnen, 2012. Yearly average between 1996‐2005.
FROM VIRTUAL TO DOMESTIC WATER SUPPLY
• Disi is an emblematic case of both physical contiguity (with Saudi Arabia) and virtual water river interaction with a water body.
• In this case, a virtual water flow was created in the '80s , using a shared aquifer.
• In July 2013 the agro‐business production for export has been stopped and the water has been diverted to supply mainly domestic use in the Greater Amman area.
• There is no bilateral treaty between Jordan and Saudi Arabia over the Disi water.
• However, due to the previous existence of the virtual water flow, and, therefore, the existence of a material exploitation of the aquifer since 30 years, Jordan will be able to acquire a certain "right to use" that water, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia has been exploiting the aquifer earlier and in greater quantities.
HOW EXPORT-LED FOOD PRODUCTION
CAN ALTER WATER POLITICS• As demonstrate in case 1 and case 2, virtual water flows
can be "activated" (Ethiopia) or "disactivated" (Jordan)• These events can modify power balance in hydropolitical
complexes and water allocation entitlements.• Virtual water might seem an invisible entity, and a difficult
mechanism to grasp, because it is globally traded but locally abstracted and/or used .
• It is not part of the water allocation as codified by international water law, which is regulating freshwater among state entities.
• However, virtual water is, indeed, capable of changing transboundary water cooperation, international relations and regional balances
COMPLEXITY OF WATER-FOOD NEXUS
IN VIRTUAL WATER «FLOWS»Virtual water flows are adding yet another level of complexity to the complexity of our “business as usual” competition among sectors (domestic, industrial, agricultural and ecosystem maintenance) ,and the upstream‐downstream dynamics in case of physical contiguity of the transboundarity• We now also have the international transboundarity of virtual water flows and powers behind it
• A river basin with a export‐led agribusiness company operating in crop production is NOT the same as a river basin without it
WATER AND FOOD NEXUS, STATE AND NON-STATE ACTORS
• Virtual water flows are managed by the private sector, (agribusiness companies, traders, retailers) – see agribusiness potential in the Nile Basin
• However, their power can be balanced by state‐actors, depending on reciprocal political power(see the case of Jordan)
Therefore, virtual water flows need different instruments to be managed and understood, compared to the classical transboundary water interaction models.
Food trade must be incorporated into water policy analysis.
The Classical Water Cycle
Human interactionsin the water cycle
Blue and green water in the hydrological cycle
Water Footprint Cycle in a catchment area
VIRTUAL WATER AS PART OF HUMAN INTERACTIONS
MAIN FINDINGS
• This analysis is showing how water basins are not close environments and how interconnection with a global food trade is essential to understand water allocation dynamics
• taking also into account foreign investments in land and water, bio‐fuel production, intersectoralallocation and switch from virtual to non‐virtual water.
• The virtual water flows are man‐made. They can be activated, de‐activated. They can change over time in volume and flux direction.
CONCLUSIONS: FOOD –WATER NEXUS
VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE DYNAMICS
• a complex political framework is needed in order to understand different options available in order to start dealing with virtual water flows interactions in transboundary river basins
• we should take into account the ‘broader picture’ of transboundary interactions, not only the ‘visible ‘ ones , because the 70% of water abstraction on earth is caused by agriculture, and the majority of traded food is managed by the private sector.
• Ignoring who is managing water and the globalization of water‐trade would give us a partial picture of what's going on and why, in the major hydro‐political transboundary complexes worldwide
