Water Resources Management - Practices of Irrigation and On-farm Water Management - page 180

Competition in limited water resources increasingly occurs among agriculture,
rural, urban, industrial, and environmental uses. At the same time, disparity in the
economic conditions between the urban and rural areas in a country and among
countries continues to increase. Questions of economic efficiency in water use will
eventually grow and assume greater significance in conflict management in water
resources development. Effective use of market mechanism could contribute to con-
flict prevention in water management by making use of increased opportunities and
incentives to develop, transfer, and use a resource in ways that would benefit all
parties. On the other hand, the inability to integrate water resources management
into the economic and social development process will lead to the aggravation of
conflicts in water management. In order to avoid them, it is necessary to create
conditions for an efficient environment for the economic use of water, including a
well-defined legal and institutional framework for water utilization and conditions
for a fair and equitable sharing of beneficial use of the water resources.
5.5.2.3 Legal Conflict
Application of the integrated water resources management concept to international
river basins usually faces the most difficult obstacle: the legal context of water use.
From an ecosystem point of view, the legal aspect of international river basins is
the main source of inefficiency and conflicts in water management. These conflicts
reflect the magnitude of problems in the legal aspects of water resources manage-
ment, which may come from issues related to the allocation of water resources
within a country or the management or sharing of water among the riparian countries
of an international river basin.
5.5.2.4 Water Conflicts in Perspective
Water management in the current twenty-first century differs significantly from the
traditional approach. With the increasing impact of the globalization of economic
development and global changes, a variety of studies and research work have been
undertaken to seek ways and means to deal with that impact and seek solutions to
possible conflicts arising from these changes. Different scenarios under the impact
of global climate change resulting from greenhouse effects have been studied for
many international river basins, and various management concepts, including virtual
water concept and privatization of the economy on water resources. In this context,
conflicts in water management will therefore assume new dimensions: futuristic
perspectives.
5.5.3 Scales of Conflicts in Water Management
Water conflicts may have a wide range of scales which usually reflect the true scales
of water management problems in water utilization resulting from water shortage,
water-related disasters and water pollution. Water conflict may have a larger scale