Today is World Day for Water.
Recent reports from the Middle East indicate that Israeli officials have raised the spectre of a war with Lebanon because of the pumping of water in Lebanon from a river which flows though both countries. This incident shows the potential that our ever-dwindling water resource holds for creating conflict between countries. One of the key ways in which such conflict can be avoided, is through the designation of water as an 'international public good', with access to a safe supply defined as a human right and its use governed by a Worldwide Water Treaty. Ireland should initiate this process immediately at the UN Security Council. David Begg explained how water is becoming an ever-scarcer resource.