For the last three decades,
the prospect of ‘water war’ between riparian countries has been the subject of intense
academic and popular interest. However, while international water wars are very
uncommon, subnational water conflicts – disputes
over water that occur between groups or provinces within countries as opposed
to between countries – occur regularly. Moreover, increasing water scarcity and climate-related challenges raise the
possibility of making the sub-national politics of shared water resources more challenging
in future. In this book, Moore has not focused on water conflicts at the
international level but has examined subnational water conflicts, a subject
that has not previously received sufficient attention as it demands. In a
federal system, the role of subnational actors in water politics has increased worldwide
as a result of increasing emphasis on decentralization. The disputes between subnational water users in shared
river basins often persist in spite of attempts by central governments to
resolve them with the help incentives and/or threats. The book carefully
analyzes the interaction of subnational actors to explain these dynamics of conflict
and cooperation in shared river basins. With the help of in-depth case studies
of subnational water sharing in the United States, India, China, and France, it
finds that while political decentralization provides the grounds for the
dispute, identity politics motivates the politicians to create a competing
discourse over the shared water. However, the active and regular participation
of these competing subnational actors in managing the shared water can help to
build cooperation. The book also includes case study-specific as well as general
policy recommendations.