A source of multidisciplinary research

What can bring natural scientists, students of the humanities and social scientists to the same conference? With a subject as universal as water, researchers from a wide range of cultures and specialities have good reason to get together, as they will during the international water conference in Bergen on August 9 - 12.

Water has played a central role in world history, as international water researchers will demonstrate during the conference on "The Role of Water in History and Development". This, the second international conference of the International Water History Association (IWHA), will be hosted by the University of Bergen; it is being organised by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS).

Important aspect of human history

Professor Terje Tvedt is responsible for the scientific side of the conference. He emphasises that it will be an open conference, without specific objectives about relevance and usefulness, and that this is precisely in order to bring out the complexity of the field.

"This will be a rather unique event in that it will bring together so many people from different countries and disciplines to a conference on water history. It is an academic conference in the good old-fashioned sense. It will take up everything from political water conflicts in the Middle East to more esoteric topics; both aspects are just as interesting", says Tvedt.

Some 220 presentations from more than 70 countries will be made during the conference.

"Water is just as important for the history and development of society on the rainy coast of Scandinavia as in the Kuwaiti desert. This is why we have planned to hold a globally-oriented, historical and multidisciplinary conference. Water is part of the history of Mankind. For the last two thousand years it has been the most important source of energy; for mills, sawmills and hydropower, and now perhaps, for the fuel cell. Water has also played an important role in many religions, and changes in water control were essential for the agricultural "green revolution" in Asia, not to mention to the creation of the "world's breadbasket" in the western USA", Tvedt points out.

He is the architect behind the critically lauded and enormously successful documentary film "A Journey through the History of Water", which has been sold to 40 countries."National Geographic" Channel has recently purchased the film, and a video version for universities and high schools is currently being edited.

"I think that one of the reasons for the amount of international attention that the film has received is that the story which is told tries to integrate the perspectives of several different disciplines", says Tvedt.

Political interactions

Tvedt started to do research on water about 20 years ago, but at that time there was little interest in the subject. Water has since become a popular topic, not least in political circles.

"Water is a central factor in the complex political interactions of the Middle East, between India and Bangladesh, in Pakistan as well as in the American West - in fact in most areas of the world. Water plays important roles in both conflicts and cooperation, while dominant perceptions have moved from one extreme to another. At the beginning of the 90s some international organisations declared that future conflicts would centre on water. Nowadays, it is more politically fashionable to claim that water is first and foremost a source of cooperation. We hope that this conference, taking a long-term view of the role of water in history will encourage research and debate in order to demonstrate that such one-sided perceptions are not based on historical experience, and that what is required is more balanced knowledge and understanding".

Tvedt also shows that water plays an important role in Norwegian politics, even today. "If Norway follows the letter of the Water Directive of the European Union, it will mean a revolution for Norwegian local authorities. Radical implementation of the Directive will mean dividing the country into river basins rather than counties with the aim of utilising the rivers more efficiently. This was done in France some decades ago. The administration of the Norwegian rivers will have to change, but there will probably be national modifications to the rule, reflecting Norway's particular water landscape", says Tvedt.

Leading a national network

Terje Tvedt's introductory speech to the conference will raise a number of theoretical problems.

"Fresh water is universal. It has always played a decisive role in every society, and it creates both differences and equalities in society. Its fluid and universal character makes it possible to ask interesting questions about the way in which we perceive and understand relationships between nature and society", he says.

Tvedt leads the "Nature, Society and Water" programme which is financed by the Research Council of Norway and the University of Bergen. Last year, the University was given the task of building up a national water research network, concentrating in particular on Asia, Africa and Latin America. The network has a five-year budget, and the intention is for it to stimulate new interdisciplinary research cooperation. According to Tvedt, it is precisely this interdisciplinary perspective that researchers at the University of Bergen have tried to develop in co-operation with researchers from other countries.

"Various projects involving several faculties are already under way. For instance, in Uganda there is a project in which zoologists, social scientists, hydrologists and anthropologists are collaborating in an attempt to reach an understanding of the relationship between Lake Victoria and the development of Kampala as a city. Botanists, hydrologists, geographers and archaeologists are cooperating on water and social relationships in Nepal, while other researchers are studying water usage on the west bank of the River Jordan, with particular reference to the Jericho spring and its importance for the development of Jericho. We also have geographers, botanists and historians who are comparing the development of wetlands in Jæren in the County of Rogaland and around Lake Hjälmar in Sweden", says Tvedt.