Turning conflict into collaboration on critical water challenges

Institutes of Energy and the Environment’s Lara Fowler uses Fulbright scholarship to research innovative solutions

UPPSALA, Sweden — When dealing with challenges such as water pollution, droughts and flooding, conflict between people can arise.

For example, a farmer in Pennsylvania may resist changing practices that are leading to agricultural runoff. These practices are impacting the Chesapeake Bay 100 miles away, but for that farmer, the cost is too high, and the benefit is too low.

Because of this conflict, there is a popular narrative that the next war will be fought over water, according to Lara Fowler, assistant director for outreach and engagement in the Institutes of Energy and the Environment and a faculty member with Penn State Law and the School of International Affairs. However, Fowler, who is an experienced mediator and facilitator, said it is possible for people to find ways through seemingly intractable problems.

Currently, she is researching why and how people cooperate to manage critical water challenges and find solutions. Although this project took Fowler to Uppsala University in Sweden as a part of a U.S. Fulbright Scholar award, she is thinking about water issues that impact Pennsylvania.

“I wanted to find places in the world where people are coming together to find solutions,” she said. “And there is a tremendous amount of international water work based out of Sweden.”

Ashok Swain, a professor in Department of Peace and Conflict Research and director of Research School of International Water Cooperation at Uppsala University, said […]

Full article: Turning conflict into collaboration on critical water challenges