Water discourses

The water epistemic community discusses water matters and directly or indirectly advises policy and decision makers in ways that reflect its beliefs on one hand, and its agreements and disagreements, on the other hand. It discusses water in ways that reflect the variety of scientific and indigenous backgrounds of its members, the richness of their different expertise, their cultural and social beliefs, practices and aspirations, as well as their ethical, spiritual and religious values. These discourses cover issues as complex as the value of water and the nuances between water security, sustainability and integrated water resources management. They deliberate over statements as sensitive as claims insisting that wars will be fought over water. They examine the impacts of phenomena such as climate change over water and how humans should adapt to it; and the list is as long and vast, as the number of complex issues intertwined with the governance of water. Is water an instrument of peace, or rather the source of (inevitable) conflict? Are water infrastructures good or bad? What are the limits of international law in the management of transboundary water resources? How should one refer to and assist, a person who has been displaced because of water related hazards? This chapter shares with the reader a non-exhaustive selection of such discourses. It sheds the light on a number of expressions, buzz words and polemics that have been overused-sometimes-with a relative indifference of their subtleties.