Check out Karen Bakker's publications, for a great start:

https://www.geog.ubc.ca/persons/karen-jessica-bakker/

"Decision rests on the uneasy unethical slope of propriety, whether deemed or in pretence or as an absolute."

"All decisions undergo phasic convulsions and convolutions. All decisions fingerprint humankind with massive unseen unbelievable often horrific consequences and mayhem for the individual as well for homo sapiens and the other species of life it controls, such as the world wars in the twentieth century, 9/11, Mid-east crises, guns-out-of-control in the USA and guns-and-goons-on-hire worldwide, use of terrorism to achieve goals--goals that may belong to a race or religion or to a State, Guantanamo Bay, Bhopal (the words are complete by themself and reflect the enormity of the deviation that humans are capable of) etc.,.

Water has tested ethical propriety from aeons. Justice and responsibility have and will always be outmanoeuvred by brute power and the animalistic rhetoric that obscures misuse of power. The first step in the long and winding road to injustice is the use of rhetoric to obscure misuse of power in any manner. The United Nations in New York, USA, is the seat of rhetoric and arm-twisting of myriad manner, both covert and overt. All leaders and politicians, including democratic ones, rule by rhetoric. If ethical concern for water can outwit rhetoric, justice will prevail."

Vinod Gupta (0000-0002-6770-5916) - ORCID

This is a very complex question, not least because water comes in many shapes. There is water sharing, water pollution, water treatment, water distribution,... The French water academy and the Water Ethics Network are good places to start. They both have elaborate websites.

On the side of ethics, I know of a couple of cases where rivers have been given legal personhood. It might give you some insight into the ethics of water. Here is a link to a pdf of Collegiate Ethics Bowl cases (http://appe-ethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017-Regional-IEB-Cases-Revised.pdf). Case 15 in the pdf is the one you are looking for.

Ethical Water Use

Water resources are spread through the three spheres of atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. Water Ethics relates to what people believe about the natural resources on which life depends. Because water resources are part of global water cycles, water has community relevance in local and global environments. Water use at different scales impacts communities locally and at widely spaced environments. Broadly speaking, every person depends on water in a general sense and, from one area to another in a particular sense, reflecting local pressures on locally available water. At a global level an ethical use of water would take into account the ethical requirement to inform global communities about local uses. Local uses range from those which protect and enhance water resources to those that degrade and deplete water. Ethical use would be that to which global communities give consent.

While the obligation to seek consent to use is obvious since use may impact on others, ethical use relies on voluntary compliance to globally agreed water uses. Equally, ethical water users would respect the right other users have to choices about their water use.

Suffice to say that ethical water use requires users to do no harm to the environment, or to other users. Ethical use of water requires accurate and timely information about how water is being used, the likely impact of degradation of water quantity and quality as well as reporting on steps taken to enhance local water resources. Water use affects individuals, environments and living communities in a wide variety of different ways.

Ethical water use includes those activities that mitigate the degradation of water quality and quantity on vulnerable individuals, environments and communities. Promoting ethical water use is every water users responsibility and carries with it the obligation to future generations to ensure that the water resources of our planet are being protected and enhanced.

We have some way to go as a species of ethical water users.

Bertrand Andre Rossert You are right. I am going to find a subject to work on. As you know The notion of a water ethics has only emerged over the past 10 years. So, I am all eyes to see any suggestion

Thanks so much for your kind attention

If you are looking for a research topic on water ethics, I would recommend investigation of "land grabbing" in Africa. Seldom made clear is the fact that most land grabs are actually efforts by private companies to gain the rights to the ***water*** under the land. In Gabon, Liberia, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Ukraine, over 20 percent of the nation’s cultivable land is affected. Millions of farmers in Africa work on land to which they have traditional title, but they have no title registered in the official property cadaster. These are the lands that are being sold to foreign business interests without the permission of the people who have owned and worked it for centuries. If the water under their lands is bottled and sold elsewhere, huge areas of farmland, beyond the land directly affected, could become worthless. A good source to start with is: Rulli, Maria Cristina, Antonio Saviori, Paolo D’Odorico. (2013). “Global land and water grabbing.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110(3): 892-897. http://www.pnas.org/content/110/3/892.full.pdf

In thUN, water is the object of Sustainable Development Goal 6. The World Council ofChurches is among the civil society organisations actively pursuing it. See its recent press release

https://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/news/water-for-all-wcc-panel-reaffirms-faith-communities-contribution

Above all, follow its links: one of them will take you the right UN source.

Hi Sarah:

The first thing about an ethics about water is to inform everyone and in all regions of the importance it has for the life of the planet. In this sense, ethics is seen as the awareness of the importance that a resource has for the entire planet. Second, It is necessary for countries to formalize norms and laws that imply the responsibility of companies and communities in the use of the vital liquid.

In that sense, it would seek to be more equitable with the rational distribution of water, but also to raise awareness among governments to maintain aqueducts in good condition with maintenance due to all facilities seeking to optimize said resource.

Link:

https://en.unesco.org/themes/water-security

https://en.unesco.org/thémes/water-security/hydrology

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002436/243651s.pdf