By Ivonne Santiago 

March 22 is World Water Day, which was established by the United Nations to raise awareness of major water-related issues and to inspire action. This year’s theme, “Leveraging Water for Peace,” emphasizes water as a fundamental human right and its pivotal role in maintaining peace and security.

According to the UN, more than 3 billion people depend on water that crosses national borders, while cooperation and agreements for shared water resources are extremely rare. Across the globe, we are seeing how water scarcity, pollution, lack of access and mismanagement of water resources can all exacerbate tensions both within nations and between neighboring countries that share trans-boundary resources.

Across the border

Disputes often escalate during periods of drought. Water tensions will increasingly agitate the urban-rural divide as urban communities with larger populations have the potential to generate necessary revenues with which to combat water stressors through infrastructure investments. 

Nearby in Chihuahua, Mexico, disputes over water rights and allocations from the Conchos River, which is part of the Rio Grande/Bravo basin shared between the United States and Mexico, have led to conflicts. Chihuahuan farmers and local communities have clashed with Mexican federal authorities over managing dams and water distribution. Recent headlines also spotlight the significant water challenges faced by Mexico City because of over-extraction of groundwater, lack of planning and inadequate infrastructure.

As we consider the meaning of “Leveraging Water for Peace” on this World Water Day, we have an opportunity to look at what is working in transboundary water resource management and where to unlock future opportunities to avoid or ease tensions.

Living in the Borderland, we rarely think about how our groundwater and river resources are shared between two nations. More than a century ago, an international treaty set terms of how the Rio Grande would be fairly allocated between the U.S. and Mexico.  Although there is no treaty governing groundwater use, El Paso Water and the Juárez utility – The Junta Municipal de Agua Saneamiento (JMAS) – maintain coordination and share groundwater modeling data to advance planning and cooperation. 

Opportunities for collaboration

Innovative water management practices have increasingly played a crucial role in conflict resolution and peace-building by fostering cooperation, enhancing water security and supporting sustainable development.

The University of Texas at El Paso’s Department of Civil Engineering has long worked with El Paso Water to research and test innovations for drought-resilient solutions. Some technologies have led to large-scale desalination and water recycling, which are proving to be solutions for a secure water future in El Paso. Decades into the future, I envision a day when El Paso Water and JMAS might even collaborate on joint desalination project(s) benefiting both communities.

Unfortunately, both sides of the border still have pockets of colonias, where homes were built without modern infrastructure and clean water access remains a challenge. El Paso Water and El Paso County have obtained grants to extend first-time service to an estimated 100,000 Texas residents where it was feasible. 

With the help of grant funding and support from UTEP students, I, too, have worked with some of the more isolated communities to pilot new water treatment subscription services. These hold the promise to meet clean water needs at an affordable cost. Yet accessibility is not universal and remains a challenge, locally and beyond.

As a peace engineer, I have seen first-hand how service-minded people and technology innovations together can deliver water solutions to those in need. With this approach, a new form of diplomacy has been birthed: hydro-diplomacy. 

I have brought students to areas hit by natural disasters so they can apply skills to meet critical infrastructure needs. On one trip, we went to one of the poorest rural villages in Haiti, where we built solar-operated water treatment systems to deliver safe drinking water. 

With these types of projects, I train my students to embrace their role as “peace engineers,” dedicated to service to society, contributing to the prevention or mitigation of crises around the world, while harnessing their technical expertise to deliver solutions “for the people.”  

On World Water Day, peace engineering exemplifies the transformative power of integrating innovative solutions and collaborative efforts to ensure water security. This is a local story but one that has far-reaching implications to help foster lasting peace in communities around the globe.

 Ivonne Santiago serves as Public Service Board chair for El Paso Water and is an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso.