TY - JOUR N2 - Several authors, politicians, leaders of international organisations and journalists have cautioned the world community that the increasing scarcity of freshwater resources might lead to national and international conflicts. When relating this to climate change forecasts ? most of which indicate that climate change will have a significant impact on the availability of freshwater resources, on water quality, and on the demand for water ? this is alarming news for humankind as it threatens human security. Not only can one expect a significant impact of climate change on the availability and quality of freshwater resources, one can also expect an increase in conflicts which are water related. Fortunately, there are also voices which question the empirical evidence for this ?conflict scenario?, pointing to the opportunities for, and experiences with, co-operative arrangements for sharing river resources. This article gives an outline of this debate and touches upon some relevant issues involved. The article is primarily based on secondary information from previous studies. ID - discovery1540376 UR - https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1540376/ SN - 1574-1311 JF - ISYP Journal on Science and World Affairs A1 - van der Molen, Irna A1 - Hildering, Antoinette TI - Water: Cause for conflict or co-operation? AV - public VL - 1 Y1 - 2005/// SP - 133 EP - 143 IS - 2 ER -