Abstract

In this article, the authors evaluate the growing importance of water and the so-called "water wars" especially in light of the 5th World Water Forum organized in Istanbul, Turkey. For Turkey and its surrounding region, water has long been a source for geostrategic power, a maker and breaker of peace, as well as an important socio-economic developmental lever. The authors also concentrate on the ways in which water has recently become an arena for neoliberal economic policies and a way to further weaken public economies.