Managing Water across Boundaries

Abstract

Nations share more than 260 international river basins which cover nearly half of the Earths surface. As demand for water grows in all countries, these shared resources will increasingly be drawn upon to meet the competing needs of billions of people for drinking water, food, energy, and industrial production. This leaves less water to sustain ecosystems and to meet peoples future demands. The uncertainties of climate change are likely to pose new risks that will challenge those who share a river basin to enhance cooperation. The authors argue that sub-national entities such as states, regions, provinces and municipalities need to share and cooperatively manage the waters that flow between them. They suggest that managing the river basin as a whole is the best way to ensure the integrity of the ecosystem, leverage productivity and increase the total sum of benefits. They further add that cooperation and benefit/cost sharing promotes more efficient and more equitable river basin management by separating the physical location of river development from the economic distribution of benefits/costs. Effective implementation of transboundary management and cooperation is hinged on sound governance, good knowledge management, participation, monitoring and adaptive management. The authors key recommendations include: engage the right stakeholders at the right time, from project development through implementation and monitoring establish relevant transboundary institutional and regulatory frameworks translate international law on freshwater into concrete rights and obligations for individuals and institutions within states agree on methods for peaceful settlement of disputes and enforcement instruments to respond to non-compliance establish transboundary water management institutions.