Ahead of our inaugural Water Conference on December 1, we asked several speakers what compelled them to focus on water scarcity in their professions, how water scarcity relates to trade and security, and what California's highest priority is in securing a vibrant water supply to meet its economic development interests.

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What drew you to focus on water scarcity and security as a professional?

Julian Fulton: I’m drawn to focus on water because it’s about much more than water. For me, studying water is a useful lens to see how we as a society relate to nature and to each other. Patterns of water use and conditions of scarcity or security, therefore, generally connect to issues of value and power. This makes studying water interesting, but it also means that in talking about water we have a responsibility to address its social dimensions.

Vanessa Casado Pérez: I grew up on a farm and I used to play in the stream nearby. I saw the creek going dry and causing floods while growing up and I saw my family waking up at 5:00am because it was their turn to irrigate. Then when I was in graduate school, immediately after a serious drought had hit Catalonia, I had to pick a topic of research and water fit perfectly. It was a current topic, and I could use the two disciplines I was trained in—law and economics—to analyze its problems.

Marcus DuBois King: Until recently, my focus has been on assessing all aspects of climate change adaptation. As a security analyst, water scarcity peaked my interest because it is a climate change impact that has great potential to disrupt fragile states in the near term.

Todd Diamond: My interest is the connection between good governance and the credibility that service delivery provides governments in countries where authority is contested by armed non-state actors. One of the most immediate and consequential public services that government provides to its citizens is clean water.

Betsy Otto: I’ve worked on water resource policy issues for 20+ years. Despite the growing challenges, we continue to ignore water risks or assume that we can engineer our way out or pump water from somewhere else. It has become increasingly apparent to me that water security affects every region—not just the most arid. Managing freshwater resources and needs will be a primary factor in community well-being and prosperity in this century.

What is the most compelling thing you've read or heard recently about California's water scarcity as it relates to trade?  

Julian Fulton: California's (and the federal) government has always had a hand in water management, including issues of scarcity, flooding, production, and trade; for example, shaping what, where, and how crops are grown, and where and how those crops are marketed. I think policy discussions can acknowledge this role more directly in addressing scarcity and sustainability issues.

What is the most compelling thing you've read or heard lately about water security as it relates to global hot spots and U.S. military priorities?

Marcus DuBois King: Rapid population growth and water scarcity have shrunk the amount of land where African herdsman (pastoralists) can graze their cattle, placing them into conflict with the local farmers. I read that pastoralists have been involved in the majority of ongoing African conflicts including Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, northeastern Kenya, Somalia, and Sudan, and they were also implicated in international crime networks. These include human trafficking, drugs, illegal migration, and extremist groups that threaten U.S. security interests.

Todd Diamond: In my daily work, it is relatively easy to connect the dots between the lack of credibility of legitimate governments in places like Iraq and Syria and the consequences to U.S. military priorities when armed non-state actors fill the vacuum of providing water and other basic services to local communities. When these extremist groups are able to gain popular allegiance, they are able to destabilize their own countries and create a greater security threat to U.S. interests.

Betsy Otto: The World Bank recently released a report (titled "Uncharted Waters") showing that the costs of "dry shocks" (such as droughts, which the report describes as "misery in slow motion") costs cities and businesses four times more than floods, which often get more visibility and attention. Even more concerning, the report demonstrated how a single poorly managed severe drought in a girl’s infancy has ripple effects on household health and wealth, trapping subsequent generations in poverty and malnutrition. These conditions are breeding grounds for political and social instability, conflict, and displacement, and have already been shown to contribute to recruitment by extremist groups like ISIL and Boko Haram.

How can California secure a vibrant water supply to meet its economic development interests? What are the priorities?      

Julian Fulton: Regional self-reliance, as described by the Governor’s Water Action Plan, is a priority issue that needs to be discussed. What does it mean if we consider virtual water as part of the state’s sustainability outlook?

How do you see California's water security connected to water trading, now and in the future?

Vanessa Casado Pérez: California, and other regions, cannot continue living in the illusion of unlimited water. Increasing water supply may be possible, but it is too expensive. Allocating current supplies to those who value it most is the way to go. It is feared that a market would wipe off the agricultural sector, but I believe it would only make it more efficient. A market includes both sales and leases. Sales and leases are key to enhance water security: the former can solve structural scarcity problems and the latter are extremely useful tools to respond to periodic droughts.

How do you see California's water security's connecting with U.S. global security interests?

Marcus DuBois King: California is the home of high-tech giants, technology entrepreneurs, and first class research universities. One innovative idea has Facebook, for example, leveraging social media networks to disseminate information to African farmers about drought conditions. Universities are using "big data" to assemble predictive information that policymakers in both California and developing countries are using to take early action to reduce water-related disruptions.

Todd Diamond: The remedies to water insecurity that California has developed—such as water conservation and wastewater treatment—can help developing countries improve the provision of public services to their own populations, which ultimately advances U.S. global security interests. As a native of Los Angeles who has spent more than 20 years working in less developed countries, I think it both makes sense strategically and it is the right thing to do to share our technological advancements with other parts of the world. The connection between other countries’ development and U.S. national security is inextricably linked.

Betsy Otto: We need good models for how to manage the freshwater needs of burgeoning economies. California is both an exemplar of that (municipal water use reductions during the recent five-year drought) and a poster child for what not to do (slow response on unsustainable groundwater withdrawals). China and other countries look to California as a close analog of what they want to be—the good—and what they’d like to avoid—the not so good. An important aspect of global water security also requires us to understand the global flows of "virtual water" (e.g. exports of California groundwater for almonds exported to Asia, or exports of Central Asian cotton via South Asian textile mills for U.S. clothing markets). These are not entirely U.S.-based nor entirely U.S.-focused security interests, but truly global in nature—and complex to understand. They will require the concerted effort of the global community, through mechanisms like the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (specifically Goal 6 on water, which aims to promote a more sustainable path for water), and hold all countries accountable.

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Julian Fulton is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at California State University, Sacramento.

Vanessa Casado Pérez is an associate professor of law and a research associate professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University, and an affiliated researcher at the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford Law School.

Marcus DuBois King is an associate professor and director of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Read his advance analysis on water stress, instability, and violent extremism here.

Todd Diamond is the director of the Middle East region at Chemonics International. Read his advance analysis on water solutions to the displacement crisis in the Middle East here.

Betsy Otto is the director of the World Resources Institute's Global Water Program.

Learn more about the Pacific Council's Global Water Scarcity Initiative.