Distance Learning Module 20 - Hydro-Hegemony (National Power Over Water)
- Hydro-hegemony is the four systems by which any country measures and controls the waters in its own territory.
- Geography power is locational position in the headwaters or downstream on any given river system.
- Material power is based on population, literacy, military strength, infrastructure, and any materials attributes a country enjoys as an internal standard of living.
- Bargaining power is about knowing the rules of water and diplomatic negotiations.
- Ideational power is the power of new ideas about water, and new ways of thinking about water problems.
- Hydro-hegemony is a semi-quantitative assessment of the strength by which any country can think to manage its water resources to a maximum of efficiency and beneficial use.
- Afghanistan has five major river systems (Kabul, Helmand, Harirud – Tenjen – Murghab, and Amu Darya), all with many tributaries that flow out to neighboring countries.
- In part because of poor management, several of these large rivers have dried up recently before crossing the borders into adjacent districts.
- Some maneuvers have been made by regional nation-states to maximize control of the water resources in whatever ways possible.
- Afghanistan and Tajikistan, positioned at the top of the watersheds, are in otherwise enviable positions, providing that their mutual hydro-cognizant capacities can be raised sufficiently and swiftly enough, before too much opposition rises to the fair use of their waters.
- Raising of hydro-cognizant capacities is necessary before entering into eventual negotiations with all the neighbors about water.