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Search for an example about politics of food or water resources

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Search for an example about politics of food or water resources

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Find a global example (not HK) of a situation where supply of food or water is being controlled for political gain.

Some guides:

1. Please create a post for your response by clicking + and add your tutorial group number + location (e.g. A1-Singapore) as the Subject. Each group submits 1 answer.

2. Attach photo that you found to the post

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Because of the recent war in 2022, the food that is coming from Iran is cut off due to Iran being a supporter of Azerbaijian in the attack on Armenia.

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One example is the ongoing conflict in South Sudan in which the government is using food and water as a tool to control populations. In areas of South Sudan where the government is in control, food and water is only available to those in line with the current political ideologies. This has led to a widespread famine, malnutrition and water shortage in many parts of the country. The situation has become so dire that United Nations agencies have warned of an impending humanitarian crisis. In addition, the government is using its control of food and water sources to maintain its grip on power. This means denying people access to basic necessities in order to ensure loyalty and obedience, thus exacerbating the already dire situation.

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The US has suspended food aid to North Korea because they have broken their promise to refrain from missile launches and cannot be trusted to deliver the aid to those who need it.

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Water dispute on Nile river between Egypt and Ethiopia
Dam built by Ethiopia at the head of the Nile river, which reduces water supply to downstream Egypt by more than one third, which harm the agriculture seriously. Unequal distribution of water rights.

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China and India: The Brahmaputra River, which originates in China and flows through India and Bangladesh, has become a political issue due to China's plans to build dams on the river. India fears that the dams will reduce the water flow into India, affecting agriculture and energy production.

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In reprisal for a deadly terrorist attack in Kashmir, the Indian government says it will divert river waters that downstream Pakistan has been counting on.

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In addition to the depletion of underground aquifers, one of Israel-Palestine’s largest water issues is one of fair distribution. Israel and Palestine have long struggled over the shared resources, heightening political tension in the region.

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Ethiopia has constructed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam but Egypt opposed it as it would potentially reduce the amount of water that receives from the Nile

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During the 1960s - 1970s, the US threatened to restrict their food exports to countries depending on their political compliance. For example, the US actually restricted exports to the Soviet Union due to their involvement in the invasion of Afghanistan. However this mainly backfired since it led to the US being less prominent in the food export market.

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Construction of Grabd Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has raised conflicts between Ethiopia and Egypt. Egypt claims that a legal agreement is required to fill the reservoir. However Ethiopia denies it.

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Chinese government has the upper control of water supply for its own water supply and security issues due to its geographic position. However, the lack of cooperation with neighboring countries about water distribution raises the tensions including but not limited to political issues.

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China impost trade ban onthe importation of rock lobster from Australia

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India constructed the Kishanganga Dam which reduced 33% of water going to Pakistan in Jehlum River. Since the upstream Jehlum river locates within India's boarder, India has control over the amount of water flowing to Pakistan downstream. The  Indus Water Treaty was arranged by the world bank and negotiates to share the water equally. As a result the Pakistan gov always has to care India's view over their policies, in case India suddenly shuts the water supply for Pakistan.

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The construction of upstream dams is likely to cause conflicts over water. World Wildlife Fund (2004) pointed out that dams and reservoirs have disrupted the water flow of 60% of the world’s major rivers. It was also found that dams have led to water scarcity downstream (Veldkamp et al., 2017). Nile River is a visible example of conflicts over constructing dams. Nile River runs through 11 countries and serves as the major source of these countries (National Geographic Society, 2019). Ethiopia, which built a hydroelectric dam, has the potential to disrupt Nile River water flows (Gebreluel, 2014). As Rile River is the major freshwater source of Egypt, it sees the dam as a threat to its water supply. Egyptian officials even threaten Ethiopia with military action in public and tensions between the two countries reach higher (BBC news, 2013, as cited in Gebreluel, 2014).

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Politicians pumped sewage to Iraq’s rivers, controlling water supply and forcing residents to leave.

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In Somalia, the rains failed, then Al-Shabab, an armed group that controls large swathes of south-central Somalia, started to impose hefty taxes on local farmers like Fathi Mohamed Ali.

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Water has been weaponised in Ukraine as their water supply is under Russian attack during the war, putting Ukraine under a water crisis.

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The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam between Egypt and Ethiopia. Eygpt once opposed the constuction due to the concern of a possible reduction in water receives from the Nile.

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China banned thousands of Taiwan food imports as Nancy Pelosi, an American politician, riled. China, which claimed Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly warmed against Pelosi’s trip. Apparently, CEO of the Taiwan NextGen Foundation, Chen Kuan-Ting, explained that the ban was clearly an underhanded attempt to punish Taiwan for U.S actions.

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The Indus River system, which starts in Tibet and flows through both India and Pakistan, has been a source of tension between the two countries for a long time. The water from the Indus River and its tributaries is used for irrigation and hydropower, and it also gives millions of people in the area water to drink. Over the years, the two countries have used control of the river system as a bargaining chip in talks about a wide range of issues, such as territorial disputes, trade, and military tensions.

For example, India has built dams and canals on the Indus and its tributaries, which has made it harder for Pakistan to get water from the river. This has made the two countries angry with each other and led to disagreements about how to share water resources. In the past few years, there have been efforts to settle these disagreements through international talks, but no final agreement has been made.

In the India-Pakistan conflict, water was used as a political tool. This shows how important water is as a resource and how it could be used for political gain. It also serves as a reminder that water resources need to be managed in a way that is fair and long-term so that they can be used to help everyone in the region.

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From 1989 to 1991, North Korea lost 80 per cent of its foreign trade as the Soviet Union collapsed. Oil imports from Russia were stopped completely and imports from China declined significantly. Two devastating floods swept the country in 1995 and 1997, destroying entire industries as mines flooded and roads were washed away. The period of famine and suffering that resulted from these factors, otherwise known as the Arduous March, lasted about 16 years, from 1994 to the end of 2009. All of North Korea’s key industries either stopped or decreased production.

Sanctions are a major impediment to recovery. UN sanctions negatively impact North Korea’s overall food production by banning seeds, fertilizers, and agricultural equipment and other types of machinery. According to the 2020 Needs and Priorities report compiled by the UN Resident Coordinator for North Korea, “around 10.1 million people, or 39.6 percent of the country’s population, are food insecure.” Contrary to popular narratives that claim North Korea’s government is intentionally withholding food from its population, the UN Resident Coordinator is quite clear that “food insecurity in the country is driven by a lack of access to modern agricultural equipment and techniques; and is amplified by recurrent natural disasters and the impacts of climate change.” In fact, North Korea has a public food distribution system, but is unable to access the necessary agricultural imports from the world market. Moreover, the impact of sanctions on North Korean agriculture must be considered in combination with the effects of division, as Northern Korea is prevented from relying on Korea’s historic breadbasket in the south for foodstuffs.

North Korea has also had to navigate the effects of sanctions on its water, sanitation, hygiene and healthcare infrastructure. According to UNICEF, over 9.75 million people do not have access to safely managed drinking water; 83.2 per cent of households do not use any water treatment method; and 36.6 per cent have contaminants4 in their drinking water. Moreover, “half of all schools and health facilities lack adequate water and sanitation facilities.”

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In the recent political move against china's expansion, the United States imposed heavy taxes on Chinese export, kickstarting a trade war against China. China later retaliated by imposing taxes against US agricultural products. Heavily impacting local US farmers and chinese markets. This trade war has led to a decrease of china and US food export, increasing global food shortages.

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The Allied Power had an embargo against Germany in 1914 that involved food as one of the restricted materials as Germany is dependent on imported food.

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China increased its reliance of soybeans on US due to Ukraine war, it raising prices of soybeans as a substitute.

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Middle Eastern and North African countries rely heavily on wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine.
The war between Russia and Ukraine led to a food crisis.

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Afghanistan’s efforts to harness the waters of the Helmand River and the Harirud to support post-conflict reconstruction and development have alarmed Iran. The Iranian government perceives Afghanistan’s agricultural expansion and dam construction activities as threats to water security in its eastern and northeastern provinces. With a largely ineffective water treaty in place, cooperative initiatives have not yet achieved a breakthrough. Afghanistan’s reluctance to engage in water negotiations, coupled with Iran’s alleged “paradoxical” activities of support vs. disruption, have further complicated the resolution of transboundary water disputes between the two countries.

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Israel controls 97% of the water sources and water infrastructures in the occupied territories of Palestine. They use this fact as a tool of further oppression to regulate the access of the Palestinians to safe and clean water and drive Palestinians out of their homes.

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The Ganges river delta is disputed between India and Bangladesh. The water reserves are being quickly depleted and polluted, while deforestation in the Himalayas is causing the Ganges river to dry up. Downstream, India controls the flow to Bangladesh with the Farajja Barrage on the Indian side of the border. Until the late 1990s, India used the barrage to divert the river to Calcutta, to keep the city's port from drying up. This denied Bangladeshi farmers water and silt, and left the wetlands and mangrove

forests at the river's delta seriously threatened. The two countries have now signed an agreement to share the water more equally despite water quality being a problem due to the high levels of arsenic and untreated sewage in the river water. India will have an economic advantage since Calcutta is the sole port of India, and that the ruling party in the Indian central government will be able to increase their political stake in the state since they have a large amount of West Bengal voters.

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Turkey plans on constructing 22 dams, 19 hydropower stations, and 25 irrigation systems on the Euphrates river, resulting in a 35% reduction in water flow to Syria in normal years and even more in dry years. This project would also pollute the river with irrigation runoff.

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US and China
During the trade war, US controlled the export of soybean to China to achieve their war goal. It caused 70.7% losses from tariffs in agriculture of China.

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Since the war began, Putin has weaponized food by increasing costs of fertilizer exports of its largest fertilizer firm, Yara. This is a big deal as Russia happens to be the world's largest exporter of fertilizer. A disruption in Russian fertilizer is needed to maintain worldwide food production. A
sustained sharp increase in fertilizer could lower food production yields that would severely affect the food supply for everyone globally until the end of the decade. This results in an increase on food price levels for a sustained period of time.

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As America is located at the upper stream of Colorado's basin and Mexico is located at the lower stream of the basin, any interception action adopted by America will seriously affect the water condition of Mexico.

The Colorado's demise was sealed in 1944 when Mexico and the US signed an agreement to construct the Morelos Dam at the border and guarantee water to Mexico only for agriculture. Because the 1944 treaty did not allocate Mexico any water for the river itself, the channel is mostly dry. The loss of the river in Mexico has been devastating. The US occasionally released “extra” water to deal with heavy snow and rain that risked overwhelming its dams.

Taking away the river had a huge impact on Mexicans, it took away part of our identity. They felt anger, sadness, and grief.

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he temperature is rising toward 45C (113F) as young brothers Daniel and Dilan Rodríguez skip towards a bridge over the Colorado River in the Mexican border town of San Luis Río Colorado. But there is no water flowing through the channel of one of the world's mightiest waterways. The pair run down the river bank and cheerfully splash through stagnant puddles dotted about the riverbed.

"We wish we had a river, so we could swim, and jump and sail my cousin's boat," said Daniel, 12. "At least we have puddles to make mud balls, that can be fun."

Dilan Rodríguez, eight, fishing in the canal that runs adjacent to the dry Colorado River at the border of Mexico and the US on 6 September 2019. Photograph: Meghan Dhaliwal/The Guardian

The Colorado originates in the Rocky mountains and traverses seven US states, watering cities and farmland, before reaching Mexico, where it is supposed to flow onwards to the Sea of Cortez.

Instead, the river is dammed at the US-Mexico border, and on the other side the river channel is empty. Locals are now battling to bring it back to life.

There are few more striking examples of what has come to be known as "environmental injustice" - the inequitable access to clean land, air and water, and disproportionate exposure to hazards and climate disasters. Water in particular has emerged as a flash point as global heating renders vast swaths of the planet ever drier.

Today the Guardian is launching a year-long series, Our Unequal Earth, to investigate environmental inequalities and discrimination in the US and beyond. It will also reveal how the climate crisis is making things worse for activists and scientists on the ground.

"We've heard stories from my mum about how she used to play and swim in the Colorado River when she was little, but we've never experienced it," said Evelin Bautista, 14, who is a member of an indigenous tribe, the Cucapá, which means the River People. "I've heard that over the border, the water is so clear that they can even see the fish."

Indeed, a mere 30 miles north, over the border at Gateway park in Yuma, Arizona, siblings Damien Navarro, 12, and Dariana, eight, spent the day fishing, diving and swimming in the free flowing river.

David Barraga plays ball with his daughter Dariana and his stepson Damien in the Colorado River in Gateway park, Yuma, Arizona, on 7 September 2019. Photograph: Meghan Dhaliwal/The Guardian

"It's so hot, we come here all the time, the kids love the water, and we often catch catfish, bass and bluegill," said their father, David Barraga. "I didn't know there's no river in Mexico. Wow, that's a shame."

"At school in science we've been learning about drought, that the planet is getting hotter," said his son, Damien. "But we've never been told about the dam or the river in Mexico, maybe when we're older. It's really too bad for those kids."

Because the 1944 treaty did not allocate Mexico any water for the river itself, the channel is mostly dry. The loss of the river in Mexico has been devastating.

Nancy Saldaña, 54, an architect and activist in the Sonoran town of San Luis Río Colorado, recalls boat rides and fishing with her family during the 1980s, when the US occasionally released "extra" water to deal with heavy snow and rain that risked overwhelming its dams. Her mother, an evangelical pastor, conducted baptisms in the river until it disappeared.

"Taking away the river had a huge impact on us, it took away part of our identity. I felt anger, sadness and grief. My children had never seen the river flow."

The disparities on both sides of the border are stark.

In the US, the Colorado serves more than 35 million people, including several native tribes, seven national wildlife refuges and 11 national parks, and supports $26m tourism and recreational industries, as well as farming. California has rights to the largest quantity, with 4.4m acre-feet per year - or 29% of the total - while Utah is allocated 1.7m and Nevada 0.3m.

At the Morelos dam, located between Los Algodones, Baja California, and Yuma, Arizona, the river is diverted to a complex system of irrigation canals which nourish fields of cotton, wheat, alfalfa, asparagus, watermelons and date palms in the vast surrounding desert valley. This is good for farmers - and less so for ordinary Mexicans.

Following the dry riverbed south towards the Gulf of California evokes an eerie sadness. The sound of gunfire in one wide, dusty section led to a couple from San Diego hunting wild pigeons, and a bucketful of feathered corpses. A few miles west along dirt farm roads, dozens of herons, egrets and ducks were staking out a wonderfully lush wetland - though it is only an accidental byproductcreated by agricultural runoff from surrounding wheat and alfalfa fields.

The Colorado basin is one of 276 watersheds that cross international borders and Mexican supporters of the binational treaty argue that it resolved longstanding diplomatic disputes and enabled the region's economic development, even if there is mostly no longer a river in the channel.

"We're the only place in Mexico with a secure water supply, that is a privilege," said Francisco Bernal, the International Boundary and Water Commission (Cila) representative in Mexicali.

But the treaty didn't foresee prolonged drought, global heating and mounting demands. Now, water is running out, and things must change.

The population of Baja California grew from 1.67 million in 1990 to 3.5 million in 2018. Most of the river water still goes to farmers. Groundwater reserves are dwindling, pollution goes unchecked, and urban neighborhoods face shortages.

"If agriculture was forced to be more efficient there would be enough for everyone else," said Dr Jorge Ramírez, a leading water scientist at the Autonomous University of Baja California. "We have enough water, what we lack is planning. Water is the currency here and politics always wins."

In recent years, protests have erupted in response to allegations of corruption and poorly policed pollution standards that favor big landowners and water guzzling industries, such as a controversial US brewery under construction in the Mexicali valley.

In 2020, both countries will for the first time implement rationing. Mexico must cut usage by 3%. The US mustsave247m cubic metres. The plan would have been much stricter if not for record snowfall in parts of the Colorado basin last year.The reductions can only be accomplished if farmers waste less and participate in reforestation efforts.

Even so, scientists are optimistic that the delta can partially recover.

In the scorched and barren delta,visitors may encounter an incongruous sight: 700 acres of flourishing native trees and shrubs in three reforestation sites.

They are the product of what is called a "pulse flow".

In 2014, an environmental experiment driven by not-for-profits on both sides of the border resulted in 105,392 acres-feet (130m cubic metres) of extra water being released into Mexico over two months, simulating the natural spring floods of yesteryear.

The pulse flow bolstered parched wetlands and reforestation zones where native cottonwood and willow trees naturally germinated. And for a few days, for the first time in years, the river reconnected to the Sea of Cortez: fish stocks increased, dolphins returned and the number of migratory birds rocketed by 43%.

But for some scientists, the community response was perhaps the most surprising and satisfying. Thousands flocked to the river as it returned, briefly, to its former glory.

"I grew up with my mum's stories about the river in the old days, but couldn't believe it until I saw it myself," said Ulises Monroy Saldaña, 13. "I'll never forget putting my hand in the water for the first time: it was cold, but it felt so nice because it was so hot here."

Daniel Rodríguez was just seven years old, but still remembers the excitement of watching the river fill with water. "We'd come every day after school and keep jumping off the bridge until the police chased us away."

His grandmother, Lupe Aderete, 53, set up portable toilets for the massive influx of visitors. "It was beautiful to see the river alive again, everyone was so happy, and I made some extra money." She added: "It's not fair, the Gabachos [Americans] should leave some water for us.

The restoration site at Laguna Grande is a shady oasis of gangly cottonwood and willow trees surrounded by desert and farmland, visited by over 2,000 people last year.

Lupe Aderete at home in the neighborhood of Miguel Alemán, Baja California, on 6 September 2019. Photograph: Meghan Dhaliwal/The Guardian

"For most children, it's the first time they've seen a forest, and for the adults it brings back memories. Connecting to nature is emotional, and visitors cry all the time," said Gabriela González, education coordinator at the Sonoran Institute which runs Laguna Grande.

There's little or no chance that the river will ever flow freely again, but plans are afoot to repeat the pulse flow, this time flooding only the spots which most benefited last time. And there is hope of expanding native forests to create a green corridor withwetlands and lagoons channelling into the sea.

An indigenous community, the Cucapá, has been involved in dredging efforts, paid to shovel out thick mud to create connectivity channels that are crucial to sustainable ecosystems. Patches of native salty grass and flocks of raucous brown and white pelicans at the lower part of the estuary indicate that plentiful fish were swept in by recent high tides.

The next pulse flow should take place in 2021 or 2022. Regardless, this region will remain more desert than delta.

At home in Miguel Alemán, a poor makeshift neighbourhood with little shade, the Rodríguez brothers ditch their school stuff, grab a plastic bucket and rush back across the parched terrain to the concrete drainage canal running parallel to the littered riverbed.

They fearlessly dive into the polluted waterway, which emerges under the metal border wall, to cool down and catch some fish for dinner.
To contact Nina Lakhani, the Guardian's new environmental justice reporter, e-mail nina.lakhani@theguardian.com Design by Juweek Adolphe

This article was amended on 22 October 2019 to correct the spelling of Nancy Saldaña.

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The lost river: Mexicans fight for mighty waterway taken by the US

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he temperature is rising toward 45C (113F) as young brothers Daniel and Dilan Rodríguez skip towards a bridge over the Colorado River in the Mexican border town of San Luis Río Colorado. But there is no water flowing through the channel of one of the world's mightiest waterways.

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In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. As Crimea is no longer part of Ukraine, water supply from Ukraine has been cut due to a dispute between Ukraine and Crimea which is aggravated by the breakdown of relations between Kiev and Moscow.