459 Javier Del Valle Melendo Water as a strategic resource... 1992, the UN Security Council expressed its concern over the link between security and the environment, stating that the non-military sources of instability in the economic, social, humanitarian and ecological fields have become threats to peace and security.76 Environmental security is crucial in the field of international relations. The links between the environment, conflict and cooperation are manifest, particularly in aspects relating to water. It has even been suggested that “Geowater” is the new paradigm in international relations, based on the following elements: • Water as a source of power. The shortage of freshwater (real or imagined) has become a strategic issue. As UN hydrologist, Fernández Jáuregui, has pointed out, “since ancient times, access to water has become a source of power and/or the origin of great conflicts”.77 • Water as a strategic resource. Nowadays, many areas suffer from “water stress” as result of scarcity in their regions (caused in turn by multiple factors: increases water uses, economic development, population growth, diversion of rivers, pollution, etc.). Although the situation is not widespread, the countries affected concentrate two-thirds of the world’s population, with 385 million of these living in the Middle East. Therefore, controlling regions with abundant water resources (the Amazon, Paraná Basin, Guaraní Aquifer, the Congo Basin, etc.) has become a geostrategic goal. • ·Geopolitical appreciation of water. Distribution by continent and population is very uneven (figure 36). 76 Document S/23500, Meeting of the Security Council of 31 January 1992. 77 Fernández Jáuregui C (2000). Water as a Source of Conflicts: A Review of the Focal Points for Conflicts in the World. op. cit., p 1. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
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