Regional / Transboundary Problems, Challenges, Limitations

There are 263 transboundary lake and river basins worldwide that cover nearly half of the Earth’s land surface, 145 nations, and account for an estimated 60% of global freshwater flow (see (Table 4.1-1); [Cooley et al., 2009]). Though the majority of transboundary freshwater river basins cross just two nations, there are 21 river basins that are shared by five or more countries (see (Table 4.1-1)). The majority (about 70%) of transboundary basins are located between developing and emerging economies, often with extremely variable intra- and inter-year hydrology, which is compounded by constraints on water-related institutional capacity and infrastructure resources (particularly given the requirements of other social and developmental priorities) at a national level [Pegasys, 2010].

Table 4.1-1:

The number and percentage of Transboundary River Basins per Continent & Freshwater Resources that cross >5 Nations (from [Cooley et al., 2009])

	Number of Transboundary River Basins	% of Area in International Basins	>5 nations Transboundary Freshwater Rivers & Aquifers (no. of nations)	Area of >5 nations Transboundary Freshwater Rivers & Aquifers (km²)
Africa	59	62	Congo / Zaire (13)	3,691,000
			Niger (11)	2,113,200
			Nile (11)	3,031,700
			Zambezi (9)	1,385,300
			Lake Chad (8)	2,388,700
			Volta (6)	412,800
Asia	57	40	Areal Sea (8)	1,231,400
			Jordan (7)	42,800
			Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (6)	1,634,900
			Kura-Araks (6)	193,200
			Mekong (6)	787,800
			Tigris-Euphrates / Shatt al Arab (6)	789,000
			Tarim (5/6)	1,051,600
			Indus (5)	1,138,800
Europe	69	55	Danube (18)	790,100
			Rhine (9)	172,900
			Neman (5)	90,300
			Struma (5)	15,000
			Vistula / Wista (5)	194,000
North & Central America	40	37	—	—
South America	38	59	Amazon (9)	5,883,400
South America	38	59	La Plata (5)	2,954,500
Global Total	263	48

By crossing political and jurisdictional lines, managing these freshwater resources through national laws and frameworks often becomes a challenge. This is particularly poignant when recognizing that no one national government has authority over any other. There are four types of institutions that have a role in promoting, supporting, and enabling transboundary management (text exert from [Pegasys, 2010]):

Water (basin) infrastructure authorities responsible for the development, financing and/or operation of joint water resources infrastructure between two of more countries, typically established under treaty between the parties.
Bilateral issue based bodies created by agreement (or Memorandum of Understanding, MOU) between two countries to engage a water issue of common concern, such as water sharing, infrastructure planning, aquifer management, hydropower, water quality and/or flooding.
Multi-lateral basin committees created by agreement (or MoU) to advise the parties on a range of transboundary water management issues and priorities, including the development of a basin agreement/plan concerning the allocation of water, transboundary objectives and institutions to be established to foster cooperation in the basin.
Multi-lateral basin organizations established with a permanent secretariat by transboundary agreement, in order to advise the parties on water resources related issues of common concern at a transboundary level.

Transboundary water agreements typically take two forms: 1) general principles of international behavior and law and 2) specific bilateral or multilateral treaties negotiated for particular river basins [Cooley et al., 2009]. Though many transboundary water management agreements exist, 158 of the world’s 263 lack a legal framework for cooperation and sufficient legal protection [UN Water, 2008]. Without such protection, watercourse states cannot cope cooperatively with existing and future threats from human pressure and environmental change [Loures et al., 2009].