OPEN GUEST LECTURE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDENTS

On October 31, 2023, an open guest lecture on the topic: "Conflict and Cooperation over Water Sources" was held at the Ecology Department of  Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University.

The event was held as part of the synergy of the Twinning Ukraine and EU Erasmus+ JM programs (the EU Erasmus+ project of Jean Monet "European Green Dimensions".

The invited lecturer was Dr. Caner Sayan (Swansea University, Great Britain).

The target audience was environmental students at the bachelor's, master's, and PhD levels of training.

During the open lecture, a number of current issues were presented, namely: day-to-day politics of water resources management; politics in the context of sovereign states: how countries shape their use and allocation of water; international water policy through agreements and conflicts, in particular in the context of transboundary waters:; global water resources policy.

The content of the lecture aroused lively interest in the discussion of issues of war and water, problems of transboundary waters, etc. So, now there are 286 transboundary river and lake basins and 592 transboundary groundwater aquifers, which are shared by 153 countries of the world.

Dr. Kaner Saiyan summarized the interesting experience of water conflicts during the 20th and early 21st centuries. It has been shown how issues of the environment and clean fresh water are the main causes of interstate conflicts, such as political tensions and armed conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. However, in modern history, there has not been a single interstate war or conflict based solely on water. However, water has historically been used as a weapon during armed conflicts.

The main theses of the lecture, regarding water as a strategic-political weapon, as a tactical-military weapon, and as a psychological weapon, became interesting for the listeners.