water wars
Fights over rivers
Water wars are conflicts over access to freshwater resources, whether between nations sharing a river basin, regions competing for aquifer rights, or communities disputing irrigation allocation.
The term ranges from actual armed conflict to legal and political battles: Water wars between upstream and downstream states have intensified as the Colorado River shrinks.
Climate change and population growth have made water wars an increasingly common topic in discussions of future geopolitical instability.
- droughtProlonged water scarcity
- scarcityInsufficiency of something needed
- running dryBecoming exhausted of supply
- liquid goldHighly valued fluid substance
- conflictOpposition between parties
reservoir · dam · thirst · arid · irrigation · aquifer · riparian · desalination · pipeline · rationing · basin · treaty · upstream · downstream · diversion · shortage · agriculture · contested
- Central Valley historySacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Modesto, Bakersfield
- California historystatehood, Spanish colonization, Spanish mission, gold rush, Sutter's Mill
- water politics
- Droughtdry spell, dry spells, no rain, low rainfall, parched earth
- what-ifswhat if, hypothetical, thought experiment, speculation, conjecture
- BoliviaLa Paz, Altiplano, Santa Cruz, Lake Titicaca, Simon Bolivar