A man gets water in Lagos, Nigeria. - Sunday Alamba / AP / SIPA

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has partnered with six organizations to develop a digital tool that can detect potential future water conflicts. Called Water, Peace, and Security, the online portal is mainly intended for associations and governments, but it is also accessible to the general public. It was presented to the UN before its official launch last month, said The Guardian on Wednesday.

The developers of WPS assure that their tool is 86% effective in the early detection of conflicts that can cause the death of ten or more people. The device can alert up to a year in advance. Several areas likely to be affected by a conflict have already been identified for 2020: in Iran, Mali, Nigeria, India and Pakistan.

Using machine learning to predict violent conflicts new #WaterPeaceSecurity tool finds significant risk of water-related conflict in parts of Iraq, Iran, Mali, Nigeria, India and Pakistan over next 12 months. Learn more: https://t.co/2OUGZOgZVA @WaterPeaceSec # COP25 # SDG6 pic.twitter.com/HicJH0uiYp

- World Resources Inst (@WorldResources) December 5, 2019

Increasing violence

For this, the tool takes into account more than 80 types of data from the last 20 years. This climatic, environmental, economic, political, demographic and social information is analyzed by an algorithm. "The machine learning program has been 'trained' to identify recurring patterns using historical data from violent conflict," said Charles Iceland, water specialist at the World Resources Institute, one of the original partners. WPA.

The UN estimates that by 2050, five billion people around the world could be affected by a water shortage. As a result of potential conflicts between communities, between urban and rural populations or between the inhabitants and their government. Water-related violence is on the increase. Their number has even doubled in the last ten years compared to the previous decade, says Pacific Institute, a Californian think tank quoted by the British daily.

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