CLE-Water Dispute Dilution

Tuesday, February 8, 2022
12:00 – 1:00 (Pacific Time)
Via Zoom
Approved for 1 Nevada CLE credit

Throughout history, and at both the local and international levels, attempts to resolve water disputes have often focused on augmenting the water supply. The assumption has been that scarcity drives conflict, and that disputes can be “diluted” by increasing the amount of water, through desalination, cloud-seeding, water pipelines, or other methods of water augmentation. However, when water augmentation has disproportionate impacts, or where water itself is merely a symbol of a different dispute (over sovereignty, for example), water augmentation can provoke more serious conflicts. This presentation will discuss the promise and pitfalls of a “water dispute dilution” approach to water management, when and why water augmentation may aggravate or mitigate water conflicts, and possible reforms to facilitate resolution of water disputes.

Presenter
Professor Rhett Larson

Bio
Professor Rhett Larson is the Richard Morrison Professor of Water Law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. He is also a faculty fellow in the Center for Law and Global Affairs, and the Center for Law, Science, and Innovation as well as a senior research fellow with the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. He works on dispute resolution and improved processes in water rights adjudications in Arizona and the Colorado River Basin.  He has also researched improving water supplies for refugee host communities in Lebanon and Jordan. He is the author of  Just Add Water: Solving the World’s Problems Using its Most Precious Resource (Oxford University Press, 2020).