Water: a conflict of interests

It is said that in the 19th century wars were waged over metals, in the 20th century over petrol, and if there is a war in the 21st century, it will definitely be over sources of drinking water.

There are 214 rivers and lakes on the planet that belong to two or more countries - 66 of these are shared by four or more nations. Conflicts often result:

The Nile
An Egyptian leader once threatened that abuse of the Nile River was a declaration of war. The waters of the longest river in the world run through Tanzania, Rwanda, Zaire, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

When Ethiopia declared in 1990 that it intended to build a huge reservoir on the river, the Egyptian government reacted negatively. At Egypt's request, Ethiopia was not granted a loan to construct the dam, and the project failed.

The Ganges River
A water conflict over the Ganges River has transpired between India and Bangladesh for 25 years. A huge amount of its water is being diverted by India's government to meet the needs of giant cities such as Calcutta. In October 1995 more than 40 million people in Bangladesh were dying of hunger and thirst because India had diverted this water to irrigate its agricultural lands.

The Danube River
The Danube River passes through nine European countries. Water pollution caused by one country often affects neighbouring environments as much as its own.

In February 2000 a large quantity of cyanide was released from a gold mine in Romania, causing the mass death of fish in two Hungarian rivers flowing into the Danube. Experts declared the five-kilometre carpet of dead fish floating on the river the greatest ecological disaster in the area since the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. Images of the river's casualties being hauled away by train drew international attention.

The pollution also affected countries downriver from the spill.