Violence and conflict caused by water shortages may threaten states’ political and social stability, according to the Parliamentary Assembly’s Environment Committee.

At its meeting on 25 February 2011, the committee noted the close links between water and security, which have made water “a military and political tool and a new weapon for terrorists.”

The committee also discussed how climate change has worsened the problem of malnutrition in the world’s driest regions. It called on European governments to recognize access to water as a fundamental human right and to apply — and, if necessary, revise — the rules of international water law.

The systems for the joint management of trans-frontier rivers and aquifers should be reviewed, the committee declared. Transparency and the flow of information between all stakeholders should also be improved.

Scientists and military experts believe that as the world warms, water — whether too little or too much of it — is going to be the major problem for the United States. They argue that it will be both a domestic problem, as states clash over control of rivers, and a national security problem, as water shortages and floods worsen conflicts and terrorism elsewhere in the world.