Whose voice shapes the narrative on water

Water resources are not inexhaustible. Factors including climate change, population growth and large-scale agriculture have led to desertification and drought in more and more parts of the world. In addition, water resources are distributed highly unevenly, and hundreds of millions of people live in areas where access to clean water cannot be taken for granted.

These global water problems provide a background to a legal research project called THIRST. It is not seeking practical answers to water-related questions, but delving into the structures, actors and legal regulations with a role in decisions on water.

"We don't see ourselves as resolving water crises, but would like to offer new perspectives to activists, lawmakers, politicians and others," says Assistant Professor of International Law Ukri Soirila, who is the research group's co-director alongside Kati Nieminen.

The five-year THIRST project has received just under €300,000 in funding from the Kone Foundation. The project's main goal is to present an overview of the current situation, as the researchers believe a broader perspective on water regulation is missing.

Previous legal studies on water resources have focused on specific fields and issues, including water as a human right or water-related environmental regulation.

"Academic research on the topic is increasingly available, but in our opinion it is often sectoral - meaning it concentrates on a specific, narrow viewpoint - or highly technical. We're interested in a broader discursive perspective as well as underlying factors, such as the political economy and power relations," says Soirila.

By adopting a broader perspective, the researchers are bucking the long-standing trend in legal science of increasing specialisation and fragmentation within fields of law.

Different ways of thinking about water

Within the group, University Lecturer Kati Nieminen is responsible for discourse analysis, which means she will examine different ways of thinking about water. Water can be seen as, for example, an economic asset, a human right, part of the ecosystem or an element of national security.

"The way the topic is discussed is crucial. Water is a context-dependent issue. What we're interested in is which of these competing contexts will eventually emerge as the leading perspective," says Nieminen.

"We'd like to highlight the battles taking placing behind the scenes of decision-making and adjudication," she adds.

By delving deep into different ways of analysing and regulating water, the researchers aim to offer new perspectives for legal research - and possibly a path to self-criticism as well, given that it is often overlooked how the law produces, reproduces and maintains structures leading to the unfair and unsustainable distribution of water.

Water is a complex issue

Nieminen and Soirila's group will be supplemented next year with Postdoctoral Researcher Kerttuli Lingenfelter and Doctoral Researcher Susanna Kaavi.

Whereas Lingenfelter will bring a practical element to the project in the form of case studies, Kaavi will contribute by writing within the project a doctoral thesis on legal requirements for water and previous attempts to reconcile them in the courts. She became interested in water during her studies and wrote her master's thesis on the human right to water.

"It quickly became apparent that the right to water is a tiny part of a much bigger picture. So many other things affect people's access to water," Kaavi explains.

Research on water reveals its interconnected nature. It is impossible to pinpoint any single factor that would be decisive for access to water; numerous factors always play a role alongside each other. This complexity also means that water should not be examined separately from, for example, food production or national security, which complicates regulation.

Generating disputes, presenting collaboration opportunities

For many Finns, water is a simple and uncomplicated matter. We often take water for granted, as we only need to turn the tap for fresh, running water to come out. However, we may not be safe from water crises. A water shortage somewhere in the world may disrupt local food production, and the effects may be seen here too, even if the actual shortage occurs as far away as, say, Asia.

"I don't believe we here in Finland can isolate ourselves or think that these things don't affect us because climate change affects all of us in one way or another," notes Nieminen.

It has been estimated that water-related conflicts and by-products of drought, such as environmental problems and people fleeing their countries, will increase in the near future. However, water-related risks are so serious to humanity that mutual understanding and new forms of collaboration may also flourish alongside conflicts.

"Water is such a vital resource that even parties involved in dispute must occasionally cooperate around it. For example, the management of water resources at the borderlands of Pakistan and India is a rare case of cooperation in a situation of tense relations between the two countries. It's in everyone's interests that water resources are not contaminated," says Kaavi.

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