Environmental Peacebuilding Association

Water, the State, and Civil Society: Challenges and Prospects for Environmental Peacebuilding

Date & Time
Jun 17, 2026 | 13.30 - 15.00

Location
CRX 442

Participants
Chair: Ashok Swain, Uppsala University (Sweden)
Imtiaz Ali, University of Massachusetts, Boston (United States)
Jeannie Sowers, University of New Hampshire (United States)
Ghadir Salame, University of Ottawa (Canada)
Yana Abu Taleb, EcoPeace Middle East (Jordan)
Rana Qaimari, EcoPeace Middle East (Palestine)

This panel explores water as a critical resource that contributes to cooperation and contestation across political, environmental, and social contexts. Presentations examine water access and scarcity, the effect of extreme environmental events on communities and water infrastructure, the weaponization of water during prolonged conflicts, and the socio-economic dimensions of water within civil society. The panel includes an exploration of how various actors have weaponized water through destroyed infrastructure in Syria as well as the burden and extreme impact of the recent floods in Pakistan, particularly on women and children. In addition, presentations examine the impact of and response to Gaza’s water crisis as a result of resource deprivation and ecological injustice, and how institutional frameworks can facilitate cooperative transboundary water governance. Collectively, the presentations examine how access to, control over, and governance of water shapes relations amid conditions of environmental stress and political instability.

Water, the State, and Civil Society: Challenges and Prospects for Environmental Peacebuilding

The Gendered Devastation of Pakistan's Floods: Impacts on Women and Children

The Weaponization of Water by State and Non-State Actors in Syria’s Civil War

Framing Gaza’s Water Crisis Through the Israeli Occupation: Political Violence, Livelihoods, and Everyday Resistance

Transboundary Water Governance as a Catalyst for Peace