| Session Description |
Population explosion and its many associated effects (e.g. industrialization, urbanization, water pollution, deforestation) have already caused enormous stress on the world’s fresh water resources. According to latest World Health Organization estimates, about 900 million people lack access to safe drinking water, about 2.5 billion people lack access to proper sanitation, and millions of people die every year from water-related disasters and diseases. With the global climate change anticipated to have threatening consequences on our water resources and environment both at the global level and at local/regional levels (e.g. increases in the number and magnitude of floods and droughts, increases in sea levels), the future state of our water resources will likely be become much worse. The facts that over 300 rivers around the world are being shared by two or more states and that there are already numerous conflicts in the planning, development, and management of water resources in these basins (especially in dealing with droughts and floods) complicate matters further. Despite the many existing practices, legal frameworks, and bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreements, there remain tremendous challenges in dealing with issues related to water crisis and conflicts. These challenges have many different facets, such as scientific, social, political, economic, and environmental, which are often also highly interconnected. Therefore, any sincere effort towards resolving the issues related to water crisis and conflicts must address these challenges, in an integrated manner. This session is intended to discuss these challenges and to find possible ways to deal with them, with particular emphasis on the important role that water researchers can play in these. We welcome all abstracts that address issues related to water crisis and conflicts, whether they present a general (global) perspective or examine specific river basins/regions of water crisis and conflicts. |
