15
seen as task of public services. Large water supply and sewage infrastructures were
built by municipalities and states. The value behind this is the public good property
of water transformed into the state’s duty to provide access to water and sanitation
to everybody. However, neoliberal trends from the 1980s on have led to giving more
emphasis to issues such as deregulation and liberalisation even in the fi eld of water
supply. In some countries, the borderline between state competencies and market
affairs has been shifted in favour of the latter, expressing a shift in regarding the
value of water towards an economic product. The installation of the human right on
water by the UN in 2010 (see below) might be regarded as a counter- movement refocusing on the common good character of water. A permanent balancing process is
required between considering water either as a common or a private good.
2.2.3 The Need for Water Ethics Beyond Value Assignment
Thus, value assignments to water are an essential element of important religions and
cultures. However, they are of limited use only when facing modern challenges to
water systems. Given the arguments below, water ethics must go beyond traditional
value assignments.
The fi rst argument is that all the value assignments given in cultures and religions
are, in spite of the fact that they may include wisdom and refl ect cultural experience,
in some way “out of the sky”. Their reference often is a holy book such as the Bible,
the Talmud or the Quran. The statements on water given there are binding only for
members of the respective cultures, traditions and religions. Regarding water as a
gift of Allah and following all the consequences for dealing with water given in the
Quran and the Sharia is binding only for Muslims, and similar with all other religious wisdom and commandment. The limited range of validity of those value
assignments also limits the applicability to solve real-world problems in the modern, pluralistic and secular world.
The second argument is closely related to this. Value assignments may be contested and controversial among different cultural groups (Priscoli Delli et al 2004 ). In
particular, cultural and religious values assigned to water do not help in solving water
challenges crossing cultural and religious borders. Cultural and religious values may
provide inter-cultural and inter-religious confl icts with valuable insight but cannot be
a self-evident basis for confl ict resolution. For example, in case of a water confl ict, for
instance between Islamic tradition and the Western capitalist approach, neither Quran
nor neoliberal rules of the market have priority per se . Both value systems depend on
particular normative convictions. Dealing with inter-religious and inter-cultural water
confl icts needs a third perspective – and the promise of philosophical ethics is to provide such a perspective by grounding its argumentation not in particular tradition but
rather in an argumentation claiming a more general validity. In case of confl ict, ethics
must question the values at place and look beyond. It cannot take religiously motivated value assignments to water as granted but has to scrutinise the normative bases
and resulting rules for human behaviour with respect to their argumentative validity.
2 Water Ethics – Orientation for Water Confl icts as Part of Inter-…
seen as task of public services. Large water supply and sewage infrastructures were
built by municipalities and states. The value behind this is the public good property
of water transformed into the state’s duty to provide access to water and sanitation
to everybody. However, neoliberal trends from the 1980s on have led to giving more
emphasis to issues such as deregulation and liberalisation even in the fi eld of water
supply. In some countries, the borderline between state competencies and market
affairs has been shifted in favour of the latter, expressing a shift in regarding the
value of water towards an economic product. The installation of the human right on
water by the UN in 2010 (see below) might be regarded as a counter- movement refocusing on the common good character of water. A permanent balancing process is
required between considering water either as a common or a private good.
2.2.3 The Need for Water Ethics Beyond Value Assignment
Thus, value assignments to water are an essential element of important religions and
cultures. However, they are of limited use only when facing modern challenges to
water systems. Given the arguments below, water ethics must go beyond traditional
value assignments.
The fi rst argument is that all the value assignments given in cultures and religions
are, in spite of the fact that they may include wisdom and refl ect cultural experience,
in some way “out of the sky”. Their reference often is a holy book such as the Bible,
the Talmud or the Quran. The statements on water given there are binding only for
members of the respective cultures, traditions and religions. Regarding water as a
gift of Allah and following all the consequences for dealing with water given in the
Quran and the Sharia is binding only for Muslims, and similar with all other religious wisdom and commandment. The limited range of validity of those value
assignments also limits the applicability to solve real-world problems in the modern, pluralistic and secular world.
The second argument is closely related to this. Value assignments may be contested and controversial among different cultural groups (Priscoli Delli et al 2004 ). In
particular, cultural and religious values assigned to water do not help in solving water
challenges crossing cultural and religious borders. Cultural and religious values may
provide inter-cultural and inter-religious confl icts with valuable insight but cannot be
a self-evident basis for confl ict resolution. For example, in case of a water confl ict, for
instance between Islamic tradition and the Western capitalist approach, neither Quran
nor neoliberal rules of the market have priority per se . Both value systems depend on
particular normative convictions. Dealing with inter-religious and inter-cultural water
confl icts needs a third perspective – and the promise of philosophical ethics is to provide such a perspective by grounding its argumentation not in particular tradition but
rather in an argumentation claiming a more general validity. In case of confl ict, ethics
must question the values at place and look beyond. It cannot take religiously motivated value assignments to water as granted but has to scrutinise the normative bases
and resulting rules for human behaviour with respect to their argumentative validity.
2 Water Ethics – Orientation for Water Confl icts as Part of Inter-…