ERE Student Catherine Sobchuk on WRE article, Grand Canyon flood experiment restores beaches

Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student Catherine Sobchuk makes the connection between WRE and economic and environmental issues here… On January 24^th, 2013, Brandon Loomis of The Arizona Republic reported the news entitled, “Grand Canyon flood experiment restores beaches on the USA Today online news site. The news relates to the WRE domain of hydrology, specifically the effects of artificial flooding of the Grand Canyon by Glen Canyon Dam. In brief, this article reports on the efforts and effects of replenishing the sand bars along the Colorado River that have eroded since the dam’s completion. The river washes sediment away to Lake Mead, and upstream sediment is unavailable to replace it because it is blocked by the Glen Canyon Dam. The flooding of the dam allows the blocked sediment to flow along the river and churns up additional sand from the bottom of the river, replenishing the eroded sand bars. The experimental flooding is executed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and monitored throughout the year by the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (GCMRC). Some conservationists believe the flooding of the dam is not doing enough for the sand bars, and that alternative actions should be taken to transport sediment down the river. These options include breaching the dam, transporting sediment around it, or giving up altogether. The results from this flood will not be fully known until later in the year, but so far the targeted sand bars have grown, while others have not grown as much. The article goes in depth about the benefits the sand bars have to the environment, the potential economic effects, but does not discuss the testing or monitoring techniques. The GCMRC would need to monitor how the sand bars grow and erode and how the habit around the sand bars change. This article intended to focus on the effects of the experimental flooding, but it would have benefited from describing how the sand bars would be monitored.

 

WRE is an interdisciplinary field that involves the management of hydrologic and hydraulic systems to reduce negative impacts and maximize positive impacts. The flooding of the Colorado River at the Glen Canyon Dam would have beneficial impacts on the environment in the river system, but the flooding and its alternatives also have negative economic impacts on the surrounding community. The flooding is meant to provide “young endangered humpback chubs a shelter from the river…a windborne source of cover for uphill archaeological sites and a purchase for vegetation.” This would increase the fish numbers and diversity and promote the growth of a variety of vegetation along the sand bars, potentially returning the river to pre-dam conditions. However, when the dam is bypassed, the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association reported about $1.4 million in power generation was lost, a serious economic cost. There is also the economic cost of more than $100 million if the alternative pipeline is built to transport sediment around the dam. To determine if the environmental benefits outweigh the economic costs, a cost-benefit will have to be conducted. The environmental benefits can be measured by determining how much money people would be willing to pay to visit the site if it was back to pre-dam conditions and by determining the price of any other environmental benefits. This is then compared to the costs of breaching the dam or building a pipeline to complete the analysis. After all of the results are collected and analyzed, the GCMRC will be able to determine if the experimental flooding has the intended effects and therefore, if it should be continued.

Figure 1: The Colorado River is flooded November 19, 2012 from bypass tubes at Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona.

 

References

Loomis, Brandon. “Grand Canyon flood experiment restores beaches.” USA Today. Gannett, 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/24/ grand-canyon-flood-experiment-restores-beaches-habitat/1863483/>.

 

ERE Student Teitelbaum on WRE article, Hydraulic Fracturing

Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student Matthew Teitelbaum makes this connection here by looking at how the water that is used during hydraulic fracturing is affecting watersheds in the Pennsylvania Monongahela River.

The article on the news I’m covering is called “Sewage Plants Struggle To Treat Wastewater Produced By Fracking Operations.” I found this article on the online website Chemical & Engineering News, which was written on March 18, 2013. This WRE news article is a hydraulic news report, which talks about how water quality is being affected by hydraulic fracturing. This article talks about how the water that is being used for hydraulic fracturing is being reused in sewage plants and is actually affecting the water quality in the Pennsylvania Monongahela River watershed. The WRE facts in the article are the description of what hydraulic fracturing is and about what the EPA standard drinking water levels should be. But, the article left out is what the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is going to do to fix this problem.

Hydraulic fracturing impacts the environment and societal hydraulic domain in this area of Pennsylvania. Hydraulic fracturing in this area disrupts the water quality in the area, which affects the marine life and the water that we can drink. This article relates the WRE issue to the impacts of the Pennsylvania watershed area because of the problem it’s having with elevated bromide levels in the watershed from the reuse of the water that is used for hydraulic fracturing in the area.  In another source I found it explains how the wastewater treatment plants cant handle the high levels of contaminated water, causing elevated levels of chemicals to flow right back into the river from the treatment plant. The wastewater treatment plants can’t handle the high magnitudes of chemicals that are still in the water that is being reused. This is making the water flow right back into the watershed with the contaminated water.

 

References

Nichols, Duane. “Frack Water Too Contaminated For Sewage Treatment Plants.” Frack Check WV RSS. N.p., 22 Mar. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.frackcheckwv.net/2013/03/22/frack-water-too-contaminated-for-sewage-treatment-plants/&gt;.

 

ERE Student Joseph DiStefano on WRE article Teck battles U.S. pollution lawsuit for Trail smelter

Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student, Joseph DiStefano, makes this connection here by discussing the political and environmental effects of international pollution, specifically the pollution of the Columbia River watershed by Teck Resources Limited in Trail, British Columbia, Canada.

On October 10^th, 2012, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News) posted an article titled “Teck battles U.S. pollution lawsuit for Trail smelter.” This article reports on the dangerous water quality of the Columbia River due to pollution from the Canadian mining company, Teck Resources Ltd.  After a lengthy lawsuit involving both the US EPA and US Native American Tribes in addition to Canadian officials, Teck admitted to polluting “millions of tons of toxic waste” over the timespan of more than 100 years. The toxic waste being dumped in this case includes arsenic, cadmium, copper, mercury, lead and zinc. This story depicts water resource engineering in a very interesting way. For what is stated in the article, I believe it accurately depicts water resource engineering facts.  What the article left out is the method Teck Resources is going to use to measure the downstream pollution.

This issue is connected to the environmental, economic, and global context of engineering hydrology and hydraulics. Clearly millions of tons of toxic waste are going to have an environmental impact. This can affect anything from the ability of wildlife to grow in and around the water, to the eutrophication of the body of water. The decision that was reached was that Teck Resources agreed to conduct and pay for testing of the Columbia River to determine their influence on the Columbia River downstream. This has an economic effect. When companies are held responsible for their environmental impact, the private market will adapt and grow accordingly. Lastly, because this lawsuit was brought up based on the claim of a Native American tribe, there is a global implication. When the Canadian company is held responsible for the pollution in Canada that flowed into American and Native American waters, it set a standard for how America and Canada deals with global pollution. Similarly, the Mexican city, Nuevo Laredo, was held responsible for pollution into the Rio Grande River. A 13-year-old boy was found dead due to 24 million gallons per day of residential and industrial waste being dumped into the river. (NYT 1994) This, in addition to the pollution of Teck Resources, caused significant changes in the way the United States EPA deals with international pollution.

References:

“Texas City Says Rio Grande Pollution Can Cause Fatal Illness.” The New York Times. The New York Times,  14 Aug. 1994. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.

ERE student Alex Carrillo on WRE regarding, The Optimistic Futurist: Waste not-make electricity instead.

Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student Alex Carrillo makes this connection here…

The news article entitled, The Optimistic Futurist: Waste not-make electricity instead, written by Francis Koster in March 23^rd 2013 it was published by the salisburypost.com. Francis P. Koster lives in Kannapolis. His “Optimistic Futurist” column appears every other Sunday. He has published a collection of his columns, “Discovering the New America: Where Local Communities Are Solving National Problems”. The content with in the story relates to water hydraulic management regarding sewer systems and their treatment process and ability.  It focuses early on the amount of containments our sewer systems can gather ranging from all different types of toxins and chemical compositions. Stating that, “Our future may also be impacted by these chemicals combining with each other in the environment and making new chemicals, a process known as ‘ecotoxicology’.” (Koster). Noting that sewer systems in America are not suitable to process these chemicals, the article refers to the American Society of Civil engineers view and grade for the 14000 sewage treatment plants in the U.S.  For the 2013 grade report regarding infrastructure in America , it received a D.

In 2009 the EPA conducted study on bio-solids with in sewer facilities and found harmful and hazardous content regarding samples taken from Sewer treatment plants.  One solution pushed in this article is the incineration of these bio-solids in order to reduce waste and even self-power the treatment management. Stating that, “Of the 200 facilities that have put such high-temperature incinerators in place, the more creative ones are actually using the burning process to generate electricity.” (Koster). This solution is relevant to waste water engineering that correlates heavily with hydrology in order to manage the available water as resource.  The solution seems plausible and if it occurs already with in treatment facilities, using the heat generated for electricity could be another plus.
This issue regarding waste management of bio-solids that prevents any contamination to the environment is important on an economic level as well as societal. Producing the energy needed to manage the waste by burning it can help lower costs to managing bio-solids. In regards to the societal aspect, people with in the district for that sewer facility won’t have to pay the price.  This article and issue pertains specifically to every citizen in the U.S. who relies on their water to be managed for them by sewer systems.

The basic cause for management of bio-solids is the over accumulation of it, the more we continue to consume the more we have to manage. Since water is essential to every life source or creation, waste water should be a number one priority in every community.

References:
Koster, Francis. “The Optimistic Futurist:   Waste not – make electricity instead.” Salisbury Post 24 March   2013. Electronic.   <http://www.salisburypost.com/article/20130324/SP05/130329881/1012&gt;.

ERE student Xu on WRE article, A Cancer Cycle, From Here to China

Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student Chao Xu makes this connection here.

The news entitled “A Cancer Cycle, From Here to China”. It was reported by the New York times on January 11, 2013. The news relates to the WRE domain of hydrology and the specific issue of the occurrence of water pollution and water treatment. The major point of this news is about more than one million Chinese people in city of Handan have a high risk of getting cancer due to drinking polluted water. This issue happened in Dec. 27^th 2012. The Zhou Zhang River, the water resource of Handan city, was polluted by 39-tons of chemical spill from the Changzhi, the city in upstream of Zhou Zhang River. However, that city’s government did not try to control the bad consequence. On the countrary, they tried to keep the secret and allowed Handan people to drink water from that river. As we know, water pollution is a worldwide issue; many countries have that problem for long time. Water treatment system is the most useful way to solve this problem. Also, pollution prevention is a way to protect environment and people’s health (USEPA). However, many countries did not pay much attention to water treatment for many reasons.  I think the article left out the information about how government and companies need to prevent water pollution and improve water treatment system.

Water resource engineering considers the balance of human beings and hydrologic and hydraulic systems in the earth. The water pollution issue in this news story impacts the broader WRE context areas of society and environmental. This article impacts the societal context because water pollution in Zhou Zhang River caused the serious negative effect to people’s daily life. They have risk to get the cancer and people may blame government cannot protect them very well. From a research that reported by Harrison (2001), both people’s physical and mental health will be damaged by chemical substance from water pollution. If there is no safe drinking water can be provided, it will cause the disharmony between people and government. This conflict must have negative effect on social development. In closing, water pollution is a serious problem in the world. WRE should pay more attention to it and try to find better ways to solve it.

Figure1. Water pollution in Changzhi, China.

Reference:

Harrison, Roy M. (2001). Pollution – Causes, Effects and Control (4th edition). Royal Society of Chemistry.

http://www.knovel.com/web/portal/browse/display?_EXT_KNOVEL_DISPLAY_bookid=1195&VerticalID=0.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). Pollution prevention. http://www.epa.gov/p2/index.htm

 

ERE student Reeves on, As Fracking Increases, So Do Fears About Water Supply

Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student Stephen Reeves makes this connection here…

The New York Times article entitled “As Fracking Increases, So Do Fears About Water Supply,” was written by Kate Galbraith and published on March 7, 2013.  This article relates to the water resource engineering domain of both hydrology and hydraulics by talking about the demand of water and the movement of groundwater.  This article is about the straining of aquifers as a result of fracking for oil in southern Texas.  Fracking uses an incredible amount of water to pump oil out of the ground; this water comes from the local aquifers that can produce high quality water.  As a result of the high demand for water by both the residents of southern Texas and the fracking business local aquifers haves seen water production fall by approximately two-thirds in some areas.  In the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer fracking has decreased the amount of water by about one third the aquifers recharge.  To combat this problem the industry is trying to use brackish or recycled water.  Brackish water is not as cost effective and may result in the damaging of equipment.  In 2011, only about one-fifth of the water-fracking used came from the brackish water.  Companies are continuing to put in research for the expanded use of brackish water and advancements may be seen in the near future.   In the textbook Wurbs and James (2002), it was emphasized that aquifer depletion is a serious concern when the discharge out is greater than the recharge.  In the hot and dry Texas climate it is a very delicate balance between recharge and discharge in the aquifers and needs to be carefully maintained.  According to the USGS, pumping can also affect the depth of the water table which can also cause water production to decline.  After reflecting on this article, I think the article left out how much of the water from the aquifer residents of southern Texas use.

Water resources engineering is an interdisciplinary field where both economical and societal impacts need to be considered in both the design and implementation of different projects.  Before using the ground water for fracking companies should have analyzed its effect on the local aquifers.  They should have made certain that there would be leaving enough water for residents to use without depleting the ground water.  This article also relates to economics.  Companies have to invest into new technologies to use brackish water.  Also residents may depend on the water for their plants and/or businesses. This article’s context area is all communities affected by fracking.  This affects all communities with fracking because companies are trying to find way to use brackish water and not local water from aquifers.  In a community in Wyoming fracking caused pollution of aquifers as found by the EPA.

 

Figure from NYTimes article of water pumped by windmill being collected in basin

References:

Wurbs, R.A., James, W.P., 2002. Water Resources Engineering. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle

River, NJ

“Aquifers.” And Groundwater, from USGS Water-Science School. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

“MNN – Mother Nature Network.” MNN – Mother Nature Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

ERE Student DiPietro on WRE Article, Killer storms, tornadoes hit South, Midwest.

Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student Salvatore DiPietro makes this connection here…

On January, 31 2013, the USA Today reported its “Killer Storms, tornadoes hit South, Midwest” article online. The news relates to the WRE domain of hydrology and the specific issue of the occurrence of violent storms and recovery from it. It is reported that a large cold front moved in, creating violent storms and multiple tornadoes over a two-day period. These violent storms affected around six states, mainly hitting Georgia and Tennessee the hardest. Over twenty tornadoes were reported over these two days, causing three deaths, thousands without power, and destroying many buildings. Based on my education in Environmental Resources Engineering (ERE), the news story is accurately reporting on a WRE issue. Extreme violent storms are becoming more frequent due to climate change. The fallout out from these storms can be flooding, deaths, and economic burdens. Today’s engineers need to design infrastructure that can handle these extreme events. The National Severe Storms Laboratory reports that about “1,200 tornadoes hit the US yearly.” After reflection of this article, it would have been nice to have seen the monetary implications of the storm. This would have supported the economic and societal issues brought out by the storm.

The occurrence of the extreme storms with tornadoes is something that is uncontrollable. Depending on the scale of the storm, they can have serious economic and societal issues on the local and national levels. The economic issues are clear, these violent storms cause a tremendous amount of damage to not only homes, but businesses and municipal systems. This can lead to completely wiping out the local economy. I found a relationship between extreme weather and the economy in a report done by Accuweather. Accuweather reports “The yearly economic cost of the weather was found to be $485 billion, plus or minus $240 billion.” The cause-effect between extreme storms is as follows-extreme rain, wind, flooding, and possibly tornadoes and destroy many homes and businesses. The societal impact includes family’s homes being completely knocked down, leaving their memories and belongings behind and attempting to relocate.

Figure 1: A man in Georgia looking through debris for a lost dog.

Figure 2: A family in Georgia trying to help relatives clean up.

Images provided by USA Today

 

References:

Copeland, Larry. “Killer Storms, Tornadoes Hit South, Midwest.” USA Today. Gannett, 31 Jan. 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2013.

“NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory.” NSSL: Severe Weather 101: Tornadoes. NOAA, 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2013.

“United States.” AccuWeather. N.p., 29 June 2011. Web. 09 Feb. 2013.

ERE Student Tamburro on WRE article, Stainless steel in indoor swimming pool buildings

Water Resources Engineering connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student Matthew Tamburro makes this connection here…

“Stainless steel in indoor swimming pool buildings” is an article written by Nancy Baddoo and Peter Cutler that was posted on the technical note about current events, and previous case studies of 1985. This water resources engineering news is classified in the hydrological domain due to its relation to water quality, and water related sciences.  The news article discusses a case study that happened in Uster, Switzerland related to the failure of a suspended ceiling due to water conditions. What happens is: the water is released into the air as water vapor via evaporation and released droplets due to turbulent waters.  This airborne water vapor is contaminated with chlorides that were present in water disinfectants and contaminants from bathers. Together these form chloramines, which are the main driving agents in steel corrosion. The water condenses and dries on the steel, causing it to pitt and eventually fail.

This current event relates to the larger context area of water quality. Water quality is an area of water resources engineering that can have impacts on an environmental, economic, and societal level. In this case, water quality was the indirect cause of a failure that resulted in the loss of life. Along with the societal impact of the loss of life, there are economical impacts in the sense that the entire roof failed requiring an entire new structure to be built. Water quality as a whole can have environmental impacts when in contact with an outside exposed aggressive environment.

Figure 1: This is an image of the failure that occurred

References:

“Stainless Steel in Indoor Swimming Pool Buildings.” Technical Note: Swimming Pools. British Stainless

Steel Association, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

<http://www.bssa.org.uk/cms/File/Baddoo%20Swimming%20Pools%20(3p).pdf

Influence of Material and Processing on Stress Corrosion Cracking of Prestressing Steel – Case Studies: Technical Report. Lausanne: Fib, 2003. Print. Bulletin // International Federation for Structural Concrete, 26.

ERE Student Thapa on WRE article, “Relief for a Parched Delta”

Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues. Our student Kritika Thapa makes this connection here…

In the news entitled “Relief for a Parched Delta”, reported by the New York Times, on their April 16^th, 2013 online news, the history and future of the Colorado River delta is discussed. This news relates to WRE domain of hydrology and the specific issue of the distribution of Colorado River water to the south of the American border. The Colorado River drained into the Gulf of California in the 1950′s. However, due to the increasing demand for water on both sides of the border, through dam diversions, the river no longer flows into the Gulf (Figure 1 and 2). A vast ecosystem that included dolphins swimming 60 miles upstream has been lost and replaced by non-native salt cedar. A treaty amendment between the United States and Mexico is poised to release enough water to restore the river’s flow to the gulf for a short time and to provide for more water to regularly flow down the river’s natural path. The initial burst will simulate the floods of the past and amount to approximately 35 billion gallons over one or two months by 2016; the base flow will be approximately 3.5 billion gallons per year. Based on my understanding of the WRE issue, the news story is accurate in reporting the importance of regular flooding to maintain the ecosystem and the water table. Research has shown that when stream flows become more intermittent, diversity and cover of herbaceous species decline. As groundwater deepens, diversity of riparian plant and landscape patches is reduced and species composition in the floodplain shifts from wetland pioneer trees to more drought-tolerant species (Stromberg et. al, 2007). However, despite the article’s optimism, it is unclear how the indicated amount was determined, especially since there seems to be no record of a historical baseline (Zamora-Arroyo, et. al, 2004)  or information on the water table along the corridor  (Cohen et. al, 2007). Therefore, chances are that the water might not reach to the Gulf. In my opinion, the news story lacks information on whether a comprehensive surface and groundwater model was used to identify the water needs or if there was any information on water budget to understand the discharge through the system.

Throughout the world water is an essential—and often scarce—resource. Vast ecosystems such as this and the Nile have been lost due to short-sighted attempts to sustain human environments. The issue in this news story impacts the broader WRE context areas of environment and economics. The environment context typically relates to the ecosystem benefits that can be reaped through the restoration of the riparian corridor, such as bank stabilization and water quality protection. It is also related to economics because such efforts will provide support and habitat for fish and wildlife and has the potential of income generation for agricultural and fishing communities in the area. In conclusion, this was an important news story. The environment and economies of downstream of dams depend on the cooperation of governments, engineers, scientists, and stakeholders to formulate reasonable measures to restore the rivers while preserving water supply upstream. This article addresses one such attempt and its expected outcome. According to The University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, brackish water at the river’s delta can revitalize the ecosystem (Taller, 2002). Without a vibrant ecosystem as well as a reliable source of water, the agricultural and fishing communities which grew to depend on rivers and their deltas cannot thrive.

 

Figure1. Dry Colorado River Delta (nytimes.com)

 

Figure 2. By the time the Colorado River reaches Mexico, most of its water has been diverted by a series of dams. Here, a view of dry riverbed below the Morelos Dam, which is the last dam on the Colorado River. (nytimes.com)

 

References

Cohen, Michael J., Christine Henges-Jeck, and Gerardo Castillo-Moreno. “A Preliminary Water Balance for the Colorado River Delta, 1992 – 1998.” Journal of Arid Environments 49 (2001):35-48. Print.

Stromberg, J. C., V. B. Beauchamp, M. D. Dixon, and C. Paradzick. “Importance of Low-flow and High-flow Characteristics to Restoration of Riparian Vegetation along Rivers in Arid South-western United States.” Freshwater Biology 52 (2007): 651-79. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, 2007.

Taller De Identificación De Prioridades De Conservación Del Delta Del Río Colorado. Rep. The University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 22 Nov. 2002. <ag.arizona.edu/colorado_river_delta/images/proceedings.pdf>.

Zamora-Arroyo, Francisco, Jennifer Pitt, Steve Cornelius, Edward Glenn, Pamela Nagler, Marcia Moreno, Jaqueline Garcia, Osvel Hinojosa, Meredith De La Garza, and Ivan Parra. Mapping Conservation Priorities in the Colorado River Delta, Mexico. Rep. University of Arizona Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2004.

<http://www.eebweb.arizona.edu/Course/Ecol406R_506RColorado%20River%20Delta%20Draft%202002.pdf&gt;.

ERE Student Perrin on WRE article, Are African land grabs really water grabs?

Water Resources Engineering (WRE) connects engineering hydrology and hydraulics with global, economic, environmental, and societal issues.  Our student Maxwell Perrin makes this connection here…

On March 22^nd, a piece entitled Are African land grabs really water grabs? was published on CNN.com.  The article appeared in the opinion section of the site, but was written by three PhDs— all of whom are affiliated with universities and/or water related organizations.  The article describes the recent rush for agricultural land in Africa.  Investors are purchasing millions of hectares of land hoping to profit from production or increasing land prices.   These investors claim that this will stimulate the local economies and that the lands they seek are currently unproductive.  However, both claims are unfounded.  The authors assert that the true intention of the ‘land-grabbers’ is to grab water.  From the perspective of an engineering student, the article didnot shout any fallacies in terms of WRE; however, the article lacked some important content.  Who the investors are, where the land they’re acquiring is, and what exactly they intend to do on it are a few items the article fails to specify.

The most important lens through with to look at water-grabbing is social and environmental justice. Social justice and environmental justice are the theories of moral ‘rightness’ in the context of humanity and the environment, respectively.  Regardless of what investors do on the land they grab, the local people will be affected, and most likely negatively, from diversion, pollution, or otherwise.  Water’s ever-moving nature, however, makes it a legal complexity.  Who owns the water? The people who live next to it and have for decades?  Those who live upstream?  Those who pump the most? The jurisdiction of water is very often unclear, and water-grabbers use this to their advantage, walking the fuzzy line between legality and illegality. The article provides an example of how private actions had drastic effects on the health and safety of people downstream.  In documentaries like Blue Gold and Tapped, we’ve seen that private companies have fatally affected municipalities in the US by over-pumping.  If it can happen here, it can happen in Africa.  We can only hope that the local people and the environment aren’t exploited for the precious resource.

The geopolitics of the water justice movement[1], an article published in Peace Conflict & Development provides a more comprehensive explanation of the legal and social issues surrounding fresh water and the conflict between transnational corporations and global citizen/NGO movements.  The article centers on a critical question, one that should be taken from these articles and considered:  Is water a fundamental right or a tradable commodity?

References

Adam Davidson-Harden, Anil Naidoo and Andi Harden,  The geopolitics of the water justice movement Peace Conflict & Development, Issue 11, November 2007 at http://www.peacestudiesjournal.org.uk