According to the UN Water Division, water has major potential for instigating cooperation between States, and must be integrated across the board in international negotiations.

In an interview with Reuters, Zafar Adeel, Chairman of UN-Water, the division which coordinates the work on water carried out by 26 United Nations agencies, stressed that if they cooperate, States that share rivers can optimise the use of their water resources. He cites the examples of India and Pakistan: despite the fact that their diplomatic relations are complex, the two countries have reached agreement on how to manage the river Indus. Similarly, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia have agreed to work together to manage the Mekong River. The water issue continues to be an extremely sensitive one for these States, and so agreement on the management of shared watercourses is absolutely essential.

Nikhil Chandavarkar, the resolutely optimistic Secretary of UN Water, and a member of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, recalled that the number of successful cross-border cooperation initiatives in water management is greater than the number of armed conflicts related to water.

According to UN-Water and its chairman Zafar Adeel, rather than being a side issue for discussion, water must form an integral part of all the negotiations between States on issues involving food security, peace, climate change, or recovering from the financial crisis.

UN-Water believes that the lack of water resources will be one of the principal consequences of climate change. Cooperation between states and the inclusion of water as the main challenge associated with those changes are therefore vital in averting future conflicts.

For more information:

• Read the Reuters wire, 07/02/2010
• Visit the UN-Water websit