A state-of-the-art review of water diplomacy
Soheila Zareie. Omid Bozorg-Haddad. Hugo A. Loáiciga
Abstract
Diplomacy is the art and skill of managing international relations through negotiations between representatives of states or agencies. Water diplomacy is an innovative approach and strategic tool to resolve water issues at local and trans-boundary scales when water conflicts rise in sharing water resources.
Complex water supply and sharing issues arise from the existence of multiple stakeholders such as agriculture, industry, urban and domes- tic users, environmental use, and others competing for scarce water.
Water diplomacy may contribute to solving a variety of water conflicts and in this sense is a tool for sustainable water resources management.
This paper presents a review of water diplomacy focusing on various themes such as the vitality of water as a resource, virtual water, water conflicts, international water law, and management of trans-boundary waters that are reviewed in this paper in the context of searching for cogent water diplomacy strategies.
This work’s findings show that conflicts about trans-boundary waters are more common in developing countries than in developed countries.
The latter countries have developed trans-boundary agreements, which may serve as guidelines to developing countries in some cases.
Virtual water may prevent future water conflicts by reducing water demand and water stresses and providing suitable conditions for negotiation between countries. Capacity building, training in cooperation, and negotiation are means of averting water conflicts.