War and water have always been inextricably linked. The logic is clear: destroy your opponents' access to water and you reduce their ability to fight. In the arid Middle East, many analysts believe that one of the region's more intractable, underlying disputes is over the control of water courses. Yitzhak Rabin, the former Israeli Prime Minister, once said that "if we solve every other problem in the Middle East, but do not satisfactorily resolve the water problem, our region will explode". The poor state of Afghan agriculture - and hence the poverty of the bulk of the population - is in no small measure due to the destruction of the centuries old irrigation canals following the Soviet invasion in 1979.

“For the last thousand years, every Thursday at noon seven men in solemn black have taken their places on high thrones before one of the side doors of the Cathedral of Valencia, Spain”, writes Liesl Graz in the ICRC's latest publication, War and Water. These men, the judges of the "Water Tribunal", are elected to preside over the water channels that bring life to the city and richness to the surrounding countryside, which would otherwise be a barren plain. It is said to be the oldest judicial institution still functioning in Europe, if not in the world.

In parched areas, control over water means power.

Disagreements between States on how to share water from the rivers Jordan, Tigris and Euphrates have compounded broader political differences. Questions of access to water from the Ganges, Mekong and Nile have the potential to increase tension between upstream and downstream States.

However, predictions that future wars will be fought over water, rather than, for instance, oil, have fallen short of the mark. This despite, as the World Bank points out, the fact that about 40% of the world’s population lives in the 250 river basins shared by more than one country.

The truth appears, as ever, more complex. While possession of water represents power, its scarcity can foreshadow deeper, societal problems. “Shortages reduce food production, aggravate poverty and disease, spur large migrations and undermine a State’s moral authority and capacity to govern. Over time, these stresses can tear apart a poor society’s social fabric, causing chronic popular unrest and violence”, writes Thomas Homer-Dixon, of the University of Toronto.

“Scarcity of water will not so much be the source of conflict as will be the inability of governments to reconcile contending interests”, writes Randolph Kent, a policy adviser on humanitarian matters. “There is a growing concern that more and more States no longer have the capacity to resolve the contending interests that have emerged in modern, complex societies”, he adds.

Water is synonymous with life. Even during war and its aftermath water and access to water must be treated with at least a modicum of respect.

War and Water is the first issue of an annual ICRC publication called Forum. The articles, commissioned from journalists and experts in the field, are designed to stimulate debate on a vital humanitarian issue.

This publication can be ordered from the ICRC's  Public Information Centre.