Water Conflicts

Dr. Mark Zeitoun is co-founder of the Water Security Research Centre, and Professor of Water Security and Policy at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia. His research follows three streams: a) development of theory and case-based research on international transboundary water management; b) examination of the influence of armed conflict on water and other essential urban services, and c) water security and management in development, post-conflict, and conflict contexts. This stems from his work as a humanitarian-aid water engineer, and advisor on water security policy and transboundary water negotiations throughout the Middle East and Africa. He has a B.Eng in civil engineering and an MSc in environmental engineering from McGill University, and a PhD in human geography from King's College London. Dr. Naho Mirumachi is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Geography, King's College London, UK and convenes King's Water, an interdisciplinary research hub on water, environment and development. Her research focuses on the politics and governance of water resources, particularly in developing country contexts. She has a keen interest in the power dynamics and discourses that shape and reshape water allocation and use with equity implications. Her work thus explores the interface of natural resources, development and security. She has wide-ranging fieldwork experience in south and southeast Asia, southern and eastern Africa. She has published extensively and is the author of Transboundary Water Politics in the Developing World and served as lead author on freshwater policy for the 2019 UN Environment GEO-6 report. Dr. Jeroen Warner is Associate Professor of Disaster Studies and Research Coordinator with the Sociology of Development and Change group. His background is in International Relations, notably security studies, reflected in his work on transboundary water conflict and governance, hydrological disaster risk and its politics, and an engagement with security framing to invoke exceptional measures (securitisation, catastrophisation). He led a 2-year European Horizon 2020 project on urban disasters and cultures, EDUCEN, and a Brazilian CAPES scholarship on cultures of disaster, in which capacity he was Special Visiting Professor at the University of Sao Paulo. More recently, Jeroen has been working on mobilities in related to environmental and sociopolitical change, especially in Bangladesh. Jeroen published and co-published several books, including The Politics of Water (with Kai Wegerich), Flood Planning, Multi-Stakeholder Platforms for Integrated Water Management