The Role of Water as a Non Traditional Security Challenge

Abstract

Challenges such as climate change, water and environment or even food security were not considered under the traditional security paradigm. In 1994, the UN Human Development report brought to the forefront the need to shift focus to the concept of people‟s security and identified several essentials including economic, health and environment security. Water, which lies at the core of these essentials did not find adequate prominence and while „water wars‟ was under the subject of academic scrutiny, the concept of water security as a global challenge did not receive adequate attention. Currently, water and its inextricable relationship to energy, food and development, and political stability is placed at the core of every security debate. In 2015, leaders at the WEF in Davos ranked water as the No.1 risk to societies. The paper explores how a change in attitude is required from policy makers to the end user.