Botswanan Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism Philda Kereng told Sputnik she expected water to become the most important resource in the future and, as a consequence, the reason for big international conflicts
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2019) Botswanan Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism Philda Kereng told Sputnik she expected water to become the most important resource in the future and, as a consequence, the reason for big international conflicts.
"We can say with confidence that the future will not be about oil, or about nuclear or about minerals and so on. It will be about water," Kereng said, adding that "with the increasing variability and unpredictability of our rainfalls, the water stress that some of our ecosystems are going through, particularly our rivers, our dams and so on, the intention of every country would be jealously guarding what is within their jurisdiction."
According to the minister, her country is heavily dependent on water for pretty much all industrial processes.
"It is not only the people who will be affected, it is the entire system - the people, wildlife, vegetation, and that would bring huge conflicts between countries because most of the rivers are shared. These are trans-boundary resources, we share them with other countries. If we are running out of that resource that we share, then whoever has the advantage of being the originator of that source, if they prevent others from accessing it, then that is how conflicts will start," Kereng added.
Botswana is a landlocked country in the south of Africa. Its access to freshwater is limited to several rivers in the east and north, while more than 70 percent of its territory, predominantly in the east, is deserted.
