11
© The Author(s) 2016
R.F. Hüttl et al. (eds.), Society - Water - Technology, Water Resources
Development and Management, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-18971-0_2
Chapter 2
Water Ethics – Orientation for Water Confl icts
as Part of Inter- and Transdisciplinary
Deliberation
Armin Grunwald
Abstract The notion of a water ethics has only emerged over the past 10 years. It
is mainly motivated by environmental concerns and the observation of water confl icts. This chapter focuses on the ethical aspects of human interventions into water
systems. It describes cultural, moral and religious attitudes towards water and
reviews the state of the art in this fi eld. Its main objective is to conceptualise water
ethics on the basis of the philosophical approach of discourse ethics and to draw
conclusions for ethically responsible interventions into water systems and for dealing reasonably with water confl icts. Far from promising “miracles” from water ethics, the specifi c added value of ethical considerations lies in providing the orientation
for ongoing debates on water challenges by not only applying substantial principles,
but by offering suitable procedures as well.
Keywords Water ethics • Value of water • Sustainable development • Environmental
justice • Equity • Responsibility • Western World • Islam • Christianity • Human
right to water and sanitation
2.1 Objectives and Approach
The aim of water ethics is directed at responding to different challenges which have
become obvious over the last decades: confl icts of interest in using scarce water
resources, creeping river, sea and ocean pollution, devastating human interventions
into sensitive water systems (drying-up of the Aral Sea and the Dead Sea as dramatic
examples). These challenges have arisen out of human interventions into water cycles,
to human changes of the chemical composition of waters by various forms of private
and industrial use of water, and to human interventions into natural landscapes. The
A. Grunwald (*)
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) ,
P.O. Box 3640 , 76021 Karlsruhe , Germany
e-mail: armin.grunwald@kit.edu
© The Author(s) 2016
R.F. Hüttl et al. (eds.), Society - Water - Technology, Water Resources
Development and Management, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-18971-0_2
Chapter 2
Water Ethics – Orientation for Water Confl icts
as Part of Inter- and Transdisciplinary
Deliberation
Armin Grunwald
Abstract The notion of a water ethics has only emerged over the past 10 years. It
is mainly motivated by environmental concerns and the observation of water confl icts. This chapter focuses on the ethical aspects of human interventions into water
systems. It describes cultural, moral and religious attitudes towards water and
reviews the state of the art in this fi eld. Its main objective is to conceptualise water
ethics on the basis of the philosophical approach of discourse ethics and to draw
conclusions for ethically responsible interventions into water systems and for dealing reasonably with water confl icts. Far from promising “miracles” from water ethics, the specifi c added value of ethical considerations lies in providing the orientation
for ongoing debates on water challenges by not only applying substantial principles,
but by offering suitable procedures as well.
Keywords Water ethics • Value of water • Sustainable development • Environmental
justice • Equity • Responsibility • Western World • Islam • Christianity • Human
right to water and sanitation
2.1 Objectives and Approach
The aim of water ethics is directed at responding to different challenges which have
become obvious over the last decades: confl icts of interest in using scarce water
resources, creeping river, sea and ocean pollution, devastating human interventions
into sensitive water systems (drying-up of the Aral Sea and the Dead Sea as dramatic
examples). These challenges have arisen out of human interventions into water cycles,
to human changes of the chemical composition of waters by various forms of private
and industrial use of water, and to human interventions into natural landscapes. The
A. Grunwald (*)
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) ,
P.O. Box 3640 , 76021 Karlsruhe , Germany
e-mail: armin.grunwald@kit.edu