Table of contents
Executive Summary
Regional / Transboundary Freshwater Resource Management
Regional / Transboundary Problems, Challenges, Limitations
Regional / Transboundary Solutions
The UN Water program’s report on “Transboundary Water: Sharing Benefits, Sharing Responsibilities” [UN Water, 2008] outlines seven key components to ensure effective transboundary cooperation (text extracted and condensed below):
- Legal Framework: There is a consensus among the majority of riparian countries that transboundary agreements need to be concrete and to set out institutional arrangements for cooperation, measures for management and protection of water resources and related ecosystems as well as enforcement. Agreements must take into account water quantity and quality, hydrological events, changing basin dynamics and societal values as well as all potential impacts of climate change. They should also incorporate dispute resolution mechanisms and identify clear yet flexible means to share the benefits of water, water allocations and waterquality standards. Provisions for joint monitoring, information exchange and public participation as well as mutual assistance in case of extreme events are also crucial.
- Institutional Structures and Capacity Development: A clear mandate for the different national and transboundary organizations is an important prerequisite for the formation of strong governing bodies. Effective transboundary water management starts at the national level, where coordination and cooperation between different ministries and water- related institutions is needed, as are sufficient financing and political commitment. At the transboundary level, the formation of joint bodies with strong enforcement capacity, such as river, lake and aquifer commissions, is fundamental to ensuring cooperation between the various governmental entities and good management of shared resources. Enforcement can only be achieved if these bodies possess strong mandates and political support from the various Governments. A variety of actors – local stakeholders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research institutions, private sector participants and donors – must all be involved. Vertical and horizontal integration is a necessity, and the joint bodies are the framework where such integration takes place.
- Integrated Approach: Transboundary as well as national water development and management are strongly linked to sustainable and responsible growth. Management approaches should be based on regional cooperation principles, focusing on river basins and aquifer systems; thereby requiring a coordinated approach by industry, agriculture, water-supply infrastructure, etc. It calls for a holistic management of surface and groundwater, implemented with the entire river basin in mind. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process that promotes coordinated and efficient development and management of water, land and related resources to maximize the economic and social welfare without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.
- Exchange of Information and Joint Monitoring and Assessment: Information based on well-organized measurement networks and monitoring programs is a prerequisite for accurate assessments of water resources and problems. Assessment is essential for making informed decisions and formulating policy at the local, national and transboundary levels.
- Participatory Approach: Public participation is fundamental to maximize agreement, enhance transparency and decision-making, create ownership and facilitate the acceptance and enforcement of decisions and policies. It is also a mechanism for gaining a better or common understanding between the various stakeholders on the nature of a given problem and the desirability of specific outcomes. Stakeholder participation strengthens integration, thereby contributing to conflict prevention, and risk reduction.
- Benefits and Costs-sharing: Riparian countries should first focus on optimizing the generation of basin-wide benefits, and secondly on sharing those benefits in a manner that is agreed as fair. The perception by all countries that a cooperative basin development and management plan that maximizes overall benefits is “fair” is essential to motivating and sustaining cooperation. It is therefore important that consensus over basic entitlements is reached and that attention is paid to the differential distribution of costs resulting from the use of the water resources of the entire water body in question. It should be recognized, however, that due to the limited amount of overall available water in some cases, such decisions sometimes involve very difficult trade-offs and choices.
- Financing: A mixture of financing mechanisms and various sources of financial resources is typically used for transboundary water management cooperation: national budgets, external bilateral or multi- lateral donors funded projects,or more strategic programmes, funds, private public partnerships. International development banks or specialized development funds can leverage significant additional investments through strategic partnerships comprising regional funds; additional funding options are e.g. regional revolving funds, Payment for Environmental Services (PES), inter-riparian financing and cost recovery of water services.
In the UNESCO sponsored Potential Conflict -> Cooperation Potential series, negotiation was identified as the most often employed method of dispute resolution over international transboundary water resource conflict at any stage [Cosgrove, 2003]. Additionally, transboundary water conflicts were often found to be resolved through the support of various international organizations and bodies (e.g. river basin commissions established by multilateral or bilateral agreements).
Some examples of regional / transboundary agreements and commissions are:
- UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The major aim of UNECE is to promote pan-European economic integration by bringing together the 56 countries located in the European Union, non-EU Western and Eastern Europe, South-East Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States and North America. The Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) was adopted by UNECE Member States and is intended to strengthen national measures for the protection and ecologically sound management of transboundary surface waters and groundwaters, and entered into force in 1992, 26 Signatories/ 38 Parties.13 The Espoo Convention14 sets out the obligations of Parties to assess the environmental impact of certain activities at an early stage of planning and to notify/consult each other on all major projects under consideration that are likely to have a significant adverse environmental impact across boundaries. It entered into force in 1997 and has 30 Signatories / 45 Parties.
- European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD). In 2000, the European Union adopted the WFD, which introduces a legislative approach to managing and protecting water, based not on national or political boundaries but on natural geographical and hydrological formations: river basins. It also requires coordination of different EU policies, and sets out a precise timetable for action, with 2015 as the target date for getting all European waters into good condition.15
- Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC). With 15 member states, SADC’s vision is of a “future within a regional community that will ensure economic well-being, improvement of the standards of living and quality of life, freedom and social justice and peace and security for the people of Southern Africa”. Drawing heavily on the language contained in the UN Watercourses Convention, SADC established the Protocol on Shared Watercourses; the revised protocol from 2003 is currently in force and has the objective “to foster closer cooperation for judicious, sustainable and coordinated management, protection and utilization of shared watercourses”.16
- United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region, ESCAP is comprised of 62 Governments and is the founder of the Mekong Committee, which is now the Mekong River Commission (MRC).
- Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). An inter-governmental organization comprised of nine countries and one observer (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda; Eritrea – observer), NBI’s shared vision is “to achieve sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of and benefit from the common Nile Basin water resources.”17 Currently, negotiations are underway to redistribute resources more equitably under the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), which would reduce Egypt and Sudan’s 90% current share, and establish a permanent, inclusive legal and institutional framework to manage and ensure equitable allocations of the Nile. Thus far, six countries have signed the agreement; once the CFA is ratified, the Nile River Basin Commission (NRBC) would replace the NBI.
- In 2008, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Resolution on the “Law of Transboundary Aquifers.” The Resolution encourages States concerned ‘to make appropriate bilateral or regional arrangements for the proper management of their transboundary aquifers’ and to use it as a basis for the elaboration of a convention. UN resolutions are formal expressions of the opinion or will of United Nations and generally consist of two clearly defined sections: a preamble and an operative part.
