Podcast: WASH at the heart of peace and war

Listen to "WASH at the heart of peace and war" on Spreaker.

Limited access to water, sanitation, and hygiene, or WASH, can cause conflict in certain parts of the world and WASH facilities can become casualties in disputes. But WASH also has a role to play in peacekeeping, according to the experts who joined Devex in the latest episode of the WASH Works podcast.

“When, for example, sanitation facilities have been hard to reach or unsanitary, or water points [are] distant, these are obviously flash points for conflict, and especially when these are being shared by different communities,” Kelly Ann Naylor, associate director of WASH at UNICEF, said, adding that children in conflict zones are 20 times more likely to die from diarrhoeal disease linked to unsafe WASH services than violence.

In the Sahel, farmers fight over water resources; in Iraq, water quality has brought social unrest and violent protests; and in Yemen, urban water systems are frequently attacked.

Gidon Bromberg, Israeli Director of EcoPeace Middle East — an environmental peacebuilding organization jointly run by Jordanians, Palestinians, and Israelis — also saw this play out in the Middle East, prior to desalination.

“Water was an issue of grab; each side wanting to take as much water as they could for their own legitimate needs … Every cubic meter of water utilized on one side was very much at the expense of water available to the other side and to nature,” he said, explaining that the River Jordan became “little more than a sewage canal” because Israel had taken half, while Syria, and Jordan took the other half.

As climate change continues to impact water availability, such incidents could increase. Research shows that 17 countries currently face extremely high water stress.

But water can be an opportunity for cooperation, Naylor said. “We need to be looking, at the very onset of projects and scoping projects, at the potential risks and potential opportunities that enhanced water cooperation can bring.”

By working together to manage resources, Bromberg explained that water scarcity can be tackled.

“If we move from the blame game to take responsibility, calling on each one of our governments to take responsibility for both sharing water resources more fairly and improving governance on their own side and cooperation cross-borders, the water scarcity can move from an issue of conflict to an issue of trust-building,” Bromberg said.

In a new episode of WASH Works podcast, Devex explores the role WASH plays in conflict and peacebuilding. WASH Works taps into global perspectives and recommendations for changes, as well as taking a look at what challenges local initiatives are simultaneously tackling on the ground.

For the fourth episode, Devex spoke to Naylor and Bromberg about the intersection of WASH and peace, and what actions can be taken to push forward progress in both Sustainable Development Goal 16 on peace, justice, and strong institutions and SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation.

Listen to the latest episode, and in case you missed the previous episodes, you can listen to them through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Spreaker.

Visit the WASH Works series for more coverage on water, sanitation, and hygiene — and importantly, how WASH efforts intersect with other development challenges. You can join the conversation using the hashtag #WASHWorks.