Pension fund managers, private equity firms and other financial players are moving aggressively to snatch up lands around the world with access to water for irrigation. Their strategy is to pump as much water as they can and as fast as they can into the production of crops, like fruits and nuts, that reap high prices in export markets. The companies are targeting places where water is already scarce and contested, and where the kind of water guzzling agriculture the companies pursue has little chance of lasting beyond a couple decades, as can be seen in examples from Chile, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Spain and the US.
In 2023 the United Nations’ authority on water warned that a global water crisis was imminent. For many communities, this crisis is already upon them, with water shortages affecting over a third of the world’s population, and many others dealing with devastating floods caused by climate change. The UN predicts the situation will get significantly worse over the coming years, setting the stage for an explosion of conflicts.1
These emerging ‘water wars’ are largely about agriculture. Farming accounts for roughly 70% of global water consumption, and many of the world’s most important agricultural zones are running out of water, squeezed by the depletion of aquifers and droughts exacerbated by climate change and deforestation.2 Most of today’s conflicts over water, and those to come, pit the interests of agribusiness against those of small-scale food producers, local communities and even urban neighbourhoods….
After the truth-shower 