杏吧原创

OK, MARK TWAIN never actually said 鈥渨hiskey鈥檚 for drinking, but water鈥檚 for fighting over鈥�. The first authenticated use of that famous aphorism of the American West was actually by a government official in Montana in 1983. But in a world of growing water shortages, it is just too good not to quote. Journalist John Fleck certainly can鈥檛 resist it, even if the full title of his book is Water is for Fighting Over鈥� And other myths about water in the West.

Water matters. Across the world, we are running out of the stuff. Not absolutely, but where we want it and when we want it. Everyone expects 鈥渨ater wars鈥�: Amazon offers seven books with that title. But what if the real story is how water shortages promote the politics of cooperation rather than conflict? In their different ways, three new books all make that case: in China, in the American West, and globally.

鈥淎cross the world we are running out of water. Not absolutely, but where we want it and when鈥�

The Water Kingdom tells what British science writer Philip Ball calls the 鈥渟ecret history鈥� of China. From its founding, Chinese society has been organised around the management of water. Dynasties rose and fell according to whether they could control the floods that came down the Yellow River along with the rich, fertile silt in which its citizens planted their crops. Not for nothing is the world鈥檚 sixth-longest river known as China鈥檚 鈥渏oy and sorrow鈥�.

For more than 4000 years, since Emperor Yu entered the history books as the 鈥渃ontroller of the waters鈥�, only authoritarian and centralised rule could press-gang the millions of people required to raise the river鈥檚 massive dykes 鈥� in order to keep pace as the regular deposition of silt lifted the river ever higher above its floodplain.

Through all the twists and turns in the long and uninterrupted history of Chinese civilisation, the control of water has been the single unifying thread. And Ball鈥檚 vibrant narrative makes magnificent sense of it all, from Yu to Chairman Mao, whose Communist control included building more dams than any leader in history, and his successors. Confronted by droughts that have dried up the Yellow River, today鈥檚 leaders of the Water Kingdom have responded by building giant canals to bring replenishing waters from the Yangtze in the wet south.

Controlling the great rivers of China has always required an iron imposition of central power. And when war intervened, things went badly wrong. In 1938, to block advancing Japanese invaders, Chinese generals broke the Yellow River鈥檚 dykes. Result: hundreds of thousands of deaths, almost all of them Chinese peasants caught up in floods and famine as the river swept south across its heavily populated floodplain.

China was and remains the ultimate hydraulic civilisation. As Ball puts it: 鈥淐hina鈥檚 water will decide its future.鈥� And in many ways the American West in the 20th century proved a worthy successor. By harnessing the mighty River Colorado, which runs south from Colorado to Mexico, and distributing its waters to farmers and cities, modern engineers have sustained shining civilisations around desert cities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Tensions were never far away as city bosses, state governors and agribusiness corporations jostled for the Colorado鈥檚 waters 鈥� tensions immortalised in the 1974 movie Chinatown. But Fleck鈥檚 engaging journalistic odyssey, Water is For Fighting Over, like Ball鈥檚, finds that fighting has been noticeably absent. Instead, the need to harness water in an arid land meant deals were ultimately done, power was brokered, sluices stayed open, and the water kept flowing.

Fleck showcases the networks of little-known technocrats who have done the deals, and slowly encouraged their masters to adopt limits on once-profligate water use. Even in Las Vegas. Behind the showy glitz of its ostentatious hotel fountains, Vegas today is a model of water conservation, he says. Since 2000, its population has grown 34 per cent while its water use has fallen by 26 per cent.

Fleck argues persuasively that the battle for water is not a zero-sum game. Savings can be made. Deals today may involve a city in one state investing in water conservation on farms in another state, so as to lay claim to the 鈥渟aved鈥� water. Today Californians irrigate golf courses rather than alfalfa. Ultimately, 鈥渨hen people have less water, they use less water鈥�, he says.

He makes his case well. But that doesn鈥檛 mean the conflicts aren鈥檛 real. Nor that there aren鈥檛 losers as well as winners. The losers, as every last drop of Colorado water has been divided up in the US, have been nature and Mexicans.

The centrepiece of Fleck鈥檚 story is the return in 2014 of water flowing down the dried-up bed of the Colorado as it crosses the border into Mexico. After years of absence, it flowed all the way to the river鈥檚 parched delta on the shore of the Gulf of California. But the truth is this symbolic rewetting lasted for only a few days. It was, Fleck admits, just an experiment 鈥� to find out what would happen.

鈥淏ehind the glitz of Las Vegas鈥檚 hotel fountains, the city is now a model of water conservation鈥�

Today, the delta is again dry. Because if water wars are mostly a myth, the hydro-hegemony of the 鈥渃ontrollers of the waters鈥� is very real 鈥� whether Californians taking the last drops of the Colorado, or China damming the Mekong and Salween rivers before they reach the country鈥檚 South-East Asian neighbours.

If anything, the power of water today is growing. As rivers like the Colorado and Yellow run dry, more and more food crops require artificial irrigation. And more and more electricity is generated by hydropower. From the Hoover dam to China鈥檚 Three Gorges, hydroelectricity is our largest source of renewable electricity.

And, as energy researcher Michael Webber argues in Thirst for Power, the 鈥渘exus鈥� between water and electricity works both ways. In California, a fifth of electricity in the grid is used to pump water around the state. That鈥檚 great, he says, until drought turns out the lights or a power outage dries up your fields. The message from these books is that water is just too important to fight over. And its control requires cooperation. But the flip side is that control over water itself confers power and wealth. Hydro-hegemony. Or, to put it in the language of another favourite phrase out West: 鈥淲ater flows uphill towards money鈥�.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淎 river runs through it鈥�