Professor Mark Zeitoun leads the Geneva Water Hub and is Professor of Water Diplomacy at the Geneva Graduate Institute. He is a leading scholar on water diplomacy, water in armed conflict, environmental peacebuilding and transboundary water management, and has written extensively on water and politics in the Middle East, particularly in the Palestinian Territories. He was also a key expert on the panel Eawag convened on water and the Gaza conflict in June 2024.

Speaker
Professor Mark Zeitoun, Geneva Graduate Institute

The seminar is open to the public.
To join online, please contact marc.mueller@cluttereawag.ch for access details.
 

Abstract

In this Eawag Seminar, Prof Zeitoun will discuss how unchecked assumptions about water mix with political and economic systems to create an insatiable and ruinous thirst for ever more water. He shows how we use water to lethal effect in wars, and demolish drinking-water systems with wanton disregard. He questions why we transform the most majestic of rivers into canals which spark international conflict and challenge our capacity for preventative diplomacy. The answers reflect more about our society than we might care to admit. If we are to restore water’s inner grace, Zeitoun will argue, we should worry not so much about “saving” water, but think about what we do with it when it is in our hands.