Géopolitique d’une ressource… locale : l’eau (surtout lorsqu’elle coule dans des tuyaux)
Résumé
A mediatic discourse on water wars tends to dramatise water as a 'blue gold' or a global public good. Yet water is not a mineral but a renewable natural resource, subject to different legal rules from the mining codes. Additionally water is heavy and consequently water rivalries are more frequently local than international. Water is also difficult to possess, and most frequently it is not subject to both rivalry and exclusivity at the same time. It can be termed an impure public good, but then there are two kinds: water resources communities (e.g. drainage or irrigation), and public services. Europe tends to keep waters as common goods, beyond the public vs private debate, but differentiating resources (common properties of its holders) and services, which are non privatised consumer goods. In developing countries, a significant fraction of the population is not connected to a public service, and is de facto 'excluded from the club'; its sole relation to water is to a resource, with a culture of free access. It is the confusion between developed countries and developing ones which leads to unduly 'geopoliticise' water.