Around 1.2 billion hectares of arable land have been lost over the last 45 years, this being greater than the entire land area of India and China combined. Around 700 million people live in the arid or semi-arid zones that are under the greatest threat of desertification. The International Convention on Desertification of June 1994 stressed the worldwide implications of this problem in terms of poverty and migratory flows. Water, life and conflict Access to drinking water is an issue locally on all continents, particularly in developing countries, where more than one and a half billion people do not have adequate access to it. More than five million people are estimated to die each year because of illnesses transmitted by undrinkable water, four million of these being children.
Water is also an international geopolitical issue.
The struggle for access to water and the pollution of watercourses at frontiers have given rise to numerous conflicts between States, particularly in regions where this resource is scarce. Examples that may be quoted are the tensions between Syria and Turkey over control of the waters of the Euphrates, those between Egypt and Sudan over the waters of the Nile, etc. The issue of water was the subject of an international conference in 1997. All those participating concurred in recognizing the seriousness and international nature of the problems, but the efforts of the international community to deal with the issue are still very weak. Whether the immediate impact of environmental damage is local or international, international cooperation often runs up against the principle of State sovereignty over the natural resources a country contains.