Much ink has been spilled on the growing trend of global land grabs – land purchased en masse in developing countries like Ethiopia by foreigners mainly for agricultural export. But along with land, investors often also gain the right to use local water, and sometimes with little consideration for local livelihoods. Fred Pearce recently looked into these “water grabs” in a series for National Geographic.
 
In Water Grabbers: A Global Rush on Freshwater, Pearce outlines water scarcity across two continents and four cultures, focusing on Mali, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and India. In each of these countries, Pearce finds unsustainable water use, from farming in the Arabian desert and water “grabs” in Mali and Ethiopia to farmers giving up their plows and selling water to nearby factories in India.
 
Mismanagement Driving Scarcity
 
Aquifer levels are falling all around the world, from the United States to the North China Plain. “Falling groundwater levels are the bellwethers of the unsustainability of our water use,” Brian Richter of The Nature Conservancy tells Pearce in one article. “We’re raiding our savings accounts with no payback plan.”
 
Much of this scarcity is caused by mismanagement of existing resources rather than climate changes.
 
Villagers near textile factories in southern India are “farming water” instead of crops, writes Pearce. They sell water from their reservoirs to dyeing and bleaching factories. While this provides a stable income now, it is unsustainable in the long run. One woman told Pearce that “every day the water is reducing. We drilled two new boreholes a few weeks ago and one has already failed.”
 
As global population grows from seven billion people to more than nine billion by 2050, more regions will experience this kind of stress. Even without factoring in future changes, which can be somewhat mitigated by technological and cultural shifts, the current patterns of water use described in the series are not sustainable. In many parts of the world, groundwater is simply being used more quickly than it naturally replenishes – and often in places where agriculture is the primary means of livelihood. As one Indian water farmer said, “It’s risk-free, while the water lasts.” But what will happen when – and not if – the water runs out?

This article was first published on the New Security Beat. Please see the original, full-length version.