Student: Lydia Bleifuss
Graduation date: May 2016
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2013
Summary
An increasing number of countries are facing complex surface water management dilemmas as energy, agricultural, industrial, and other demands continue to rise. My concentration focuses on how newly industrialized countries are experiencing these issues more intensely. Dams, interbasin transfers, irrigation canals, flood control infrastructures, and reservoirs are the primary projects stressing water management systems. Resulting conflicts are comprised of social, political, and economic factors. Situation dependent, project authorization and construction is funded by a variety of local and international individuals, organizations, and governments. Surface water development is especially prominent within newly industrialized countries, or NICs, due to the relatively sudden demand for more power and agricultural production created by their increasing economies and populations. NICs are defined as “countries which have made profound structural changes in their economies under conditions of a fast growth rate” (Bozyk 2006). While surface water projects are present in most areas of the globe, newly industrialized countries generally develop with the advantage of simultaneous technological advances (Archibugi 1997). These advancements provide NICs, more so than other countries, with the resources and incentive to build projects on large scales. Some prominent NICs include: India, China, Brazil, and South Africa. Within all four of these countries, various social, political, and economic issues over surface water projects interrelate. Furthering economic dynamics, these countries are connected by their “strive for economic development [which] has severely stressed natural renewable resources, so much so that fresh water is beginning to have a scarcity value and emotional intensity that exists for fossil fuel” (Swain 2013). Within India, China, Brazil, and South Africa, surface water developments are expanding into more remote areas, specifically impacting rural groups, both upstream and down. The benefits and ramifications a project generates depends on a group’s relative location to the development epicenter. Rural groups such as farming communities, indigenous peoples, landowners, and fishermen, generally have a much closer proximity to, and therefore are more directly impacted by, surface water projects. For example, when a reservoir dam is installed, groups located nearest the sight are often displaced while those further downstream may receive the benefit of increased agricultural stability. In response to such projects, some believe that the “mastery of nature may be effective in the short-term in generating rising consumption patters, but also in masking the long-term implications of ecosystem stress” (McMichael 2011). This perspective emphasizes the ecological, social, and economic repercussions surface water projects can create, largely influenced by the intense transitions NICs undergo. Other perspectives focus upon the advantages of major surface water projects, specifically heightened social prosperity potential within NICs. My concentration’s relevance to Environmental Studies is apparent through several different themes. Political Economy and Environment is closely connected to my concentration partly through the inclusion of externalities. This theme defines an externality as “an unintended consequence of economic activity that affects some third party uninvolved in the business exchange.” Ecosystems and local groups, which are often more prominently impacted within NICs, can be considered examples of this third party. Natural Resource Extraction is also an important theme as it not only discusses increasing dependence on water as a resource, but also how areas where surface water is utilized are further usurping upstream and downstream ecosystems. Finally, Environmental Attitudes and Behavior provides important support to my concentration through its evaluations of human reactions to growing resource use, water included. The connection of these themes to various actors and perspectives surrounding surface water conflicts are portrayed in the following examples.
The few surface water dilemmas that I situate here are examples of the many different forms of conflict that are arising within NICs. China’s rapidly growing economy and population has generated environmental repercussions, which are now “exacting [their] own toll on the Chinese people, impinging on continued economic development, forcing large-scale migration, and inflicting significant harm on the public’s health” (Economy 2010). Pollution, damming, and scarcity are the main factors contributing to surface water management conflicts here. The ability of outside powers, such as large electricity corporations, to influence the development of surface water development decisions, has large impacts upon different rural groups. The degree to which these groups are involved in the project decision making process largely influences the amount of resulting social tensions. The Xingu river basin in Brazil is inhabited by many indigenous peoples whose “historical management and use of these landscapes have enabled their long-term occupation and ultimately their protection” (Schwartzman 2013). Despite their coexistence with the land, these indigenous peoples will need to utilize “bottom-up forms of governance to gain recognition…of these territories” (Schwartzman 2013). Without these strategies, the landscapes in which they reside will become significantly altered by a series of large-scale dam infrastructures, making displacement and cultural destruction difficult to avoid (Schwartzman 2013). However, there are many positive implications of surface water projects can present to not only rural groups, but also non-human actors. For example, although many dams have been built in South Africa to aid rural agriculture, these man-made bodies of water also act as natural habitats for threatened dragonfly populations (Samways 1989). This emphasizes one of numerous ecological and social benefits South Africa, as well as other NICs, have experienced due to surface water development. In India, cultural and social impacts created by the proposed large-scale project interlinking its rivers are obvious (Mirza 2012). This interlinking will arguably provide advantages through increased water transfer abilities, irrigation access, flood control potential, and energy production. However, by altering the Ganges’ and Brahmaputra’s flows, social, economic, and ecological consequences would be unavoidable to some degree (Mirza 2012). This situation is also a pertinent example transferable ecological and social effects surface water projects can have within transboundary basins. In this case, the basin dependent nations are Nepal and Bhutan. The development of this interlinking and other projects throughout the world ultimately emphasizes that non-NIC countries can also be impacted greatly, both positively and negatively, through basin relationships (Mirza 2012). Additionally, India is an interesting NIC to analyze due to its historical issues with water scarcity. “Due to spatial and temporal variability in precipitation the country faces the problem of flood and drought syndrome. Over-exploitation of groundwater is leading to reduction of low flows in the rivers” (Kumar 2005). India, as well as China and South Africa, experience the problematic contrast of natural drought and rapidly growing populations, which illuminates how surface water development becomes especially indispensible to rural groups surviving on often over allocated resources (Mehta 2001). Ultimately, there are many consequences and advantages produced by surface water projects within all four of these newly industrialized countries, emphasized by their fluctuating conflicts both within and outside of their own boarders.
References
Questions
- Descriptive: What are the most recent large-scale surface water projects (dams, irrigation, interbasin transfers, flood control) being developed within newly industrialized countries? What are the main conflicts that have arisen due to these developments? To what extent are they found on and thus transforming rural land? What factors lead to conflicts between countries?
- Explanatory: What are the economic factors that may encourage the development of more surface water projects? What role does population play? How are international pressures affecting the ways in which governments, organizations, and individuals promoting the development of surface water projects within NICs, react to social conflict? How do pressures created by NICs, economic and other, play a role in the development of surface water projects in other countries?
- Evaluative: In what ways has the increasing development of these projects united or divided those affected by the results? For instance, who has experienced repercussions and are they generally united in their opposition? To what extent have growing disruptions of natural ecosystems in result of these projects created tensions due to altered landscapes and potential displacement of rural peoples?
Concentration courses
- SOAN 350 (Global Inequality, 4 credits), spring 2015. Understanding inequalities between both NICs and other countries allowed me to better grasp in what various ways water is used and who manages its allocation.
- IA 257 (Global Resource Dilemmas, 4 credits), spring 2014. This class elevated my understanding of the importance of water as a resource and why water surface projects have become so influential. (Not taking as a breadth course.)
- GEO 280 (The Fundamentals of Hydrology, 4 credits), spring 2016. This course is especially beneficial for my concentration as surface water projects, especially hydropower developments, largely revolve around technical hydrological data analysis.
- ENVS 499 (Independent Study, 4 credits), spring 2015. This independent study, a comparison of the Brahmaputra (China) and Colorado (USA) watersheds, provided me with a more in-depth understanding of the growing complexities of surface water management, especially as these watersheds flow through multiple nations.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.