CE 397 Transboundary Water Resources

International Water Conventions

Water Rights

Though the water running in the stream is everyone's, in the pitcher it is his only who drew it out

John Locke,

Second Treatise on Government, p. 18. Legal instruments for water allocation in

international settings Extend notions of sharing from human

interactions to those between nations

Watercourse

Definition - A system of surface waters and

groundwaters constituting a unitary whole and normally flowing into a common terminus (UN 97)

Transboundary - extends over several nations Once resource has been developed and use of it is

growing, problems defining entitlements to use appear

Transboundary Settings

Nationally Water rights and institutions are devised to

rationally and equitably develop and use the resource

Internationally Water rights don’t exist between countries Laws are enforced by international agreements

between countries, not by an overarching authority

Example: Tigris – Euphrates Shared between

Turkey, Syria, Iraq Turkish projects

motivated search for agreement

Characterized by unilateral development (upstream)

Country positions: Iraq: Historic rights Syria: Shared resource Turkey: Reasonable & Equitable Utilization

Example: Jordan River Basin States and % of total

basin: Jordan (48.44%) Israel (21.35%) West Bank (7.4%) Golan Heights (3.54%) Syria (11.54%) Lebanon (1.34%) Egypt (6.39%)

Basin Population: approximately 13.3

million Characterized by unilateral

development (midstream) and international conflict

Nilehail to thee, O Nile, that issues from the earth and comes to keep Egypt alive! When he rises, then the land is in jubilation, then every belly is in joy -- Anonymous

Basin Countries Burundi Dem Rep of Congo Egypt Eritrea Ethiopia Kenya Rwanda Sudan Tanzania Uganda

Characterized by unilateral development (downstream) and international conflict

Rio Grande/Bravo

The uncertainty of water demand and supply into this century emerges as a potential source of conflict between both the United States and Mexico and between municipal, industrial, and agricultural users on either side of the border.

Water in Transboundary Settings

General rules of international law which guide sharing of water in transboundary settings Principles generally hinge on notions of

Equality, reasonableness, and avoidance of harming ones neighbors

In addition, the rules call for prevention of conflicts through

Information sharing, Notification and consultation of neighboring

riparians of proposed works

International Water Law Helsinki Rules

“Rules on the Uses of the Water of International Rivers” (ILA, Helsinki, 1966)

http://www.internationalwaterlaw.org/IntlDocs/Helsinki_Rules.htm Helsinki Convention

“Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes” (UN-ECE, Helsinki, 1992)

http://www.unece.org/env/water/ UN Convention

“Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses” (UN, New York, 1997)

http://www.internationalwaterlaw.org/IntlDocs/Watercourse_Conv.htm 

Intended to be framework documents providing guidance for the construction of more specific multilateral agreements governing particular transboundary situations  

Sovereignty and Integrity

Absolute territorial sovereignty:  a nation may use any amount of water flowing into its territory for consumption or for disposing of pollution with no regard for adversely affected downstream nations (Harmon doctrine)

Absolute territorial integrity:  a downstream nation has a right to an uninterrupted flow of a fixed quantity of usable water from upstream states

Limited territorial sovereignty:  Every nation bordering a watercourse has the right to use water flowing in its territory provided that the use does not harm the territory or interests of other nations (riparian rights)

Community of interest: no nation may use waters in its jurisdiction without consultation and cooperation with downstream nations

Equitable use: each nation in a river basin is entitled to a reasonable and equitable share of water consumption and disposal of pollution

Helsinki Rules

Distribution among riparians governed by: Contribution to the drainage basin area Climatic factors Prior use Economic & social needs Population Costs of meeting needs by alternative means Availability of other resources Avoidance of undue waste & damage

downstream

UN Convention 1997

Riparian states can utilize the resource in an equitable and reasonable manner in order to achieve optimal and sustainable utilisation

States are obligated to undertake all necessary measures to ensure that such utilization does not lead to any other riparian states suffering significant harm

Legally ambiguous terms (see Waterbury paper) equitable, reasonable, significant prevent unequivocal allocations of water

Absence of any mechanism for supranational enforcement