The End of Water Scarcity? : Environmental Determinism and Water Security

Sammanfattning:  Is there no development without water? Are arid and dry regions destined to face water scarcity? This essay argues that with globalisation and technological advancements in the water sector are making time and place less relevant for hydro securing societies. Instead, relevant for water insecure countries is the asymmetrical access to technologies and management. For instance, landscapes that are preconditioned to be dry are no longer determined to face water scarcity because of desalination industries such as in the case of Saudi Arabia. This paper will address the three following questions: a) What factors can explain water scarcity conditions in which they are not geographically preconditioned? b) In what ways have technological interventions created water security for societies living in geographically pre-conditioned physically water-scarce regions? c) Why is Saudi Arabia, a country who lack access to physical water sources such as rivers, lakes or groundwater not determined to become underdeveloped? The result from this qualitative research suggests that technological advancements does compress time and space and makes some societies living in dry and arid regions able to access fresh water from far distances. The example taken with the virtual water trading and the polar ice towing illustrates that with the capacity to invest in technologies may overcome environmental deterministic factors.