Depoliticisation, water, and environmental peacebuilding

This chapter addresses the politics of water and the interplay between depoliticisation, technocracy and peacebuilding. Water scarcity is often framed with a dual emphasis on the conflictual and cooperative dimensions. Hence, water is an important and prioritised area of environmental peacebuilding (Conca and Dabelko 2002). At the same time, there is something puzzling about the interaction between water and politics. While water quality and quantity is at the top of the political agendas in basins, such as the Nile and the Jordan River, strategies to resolve water conflicts tend to be framed in depoliticised and technical ways.