Transboundary Water

Executive Summary
This study considers whether South Africa is facing a water crisis and, if so, what the nature of the crisis is. It then reflects on whether the country is “water secure” and, if not, what is required to rectify the situation.

The study concludes that South Africa does not have a national water crisis at present. Regardless of effective water management and service provision, however, a number of serious problems could arise that could prove to be the seeds of future crises. In such situations, water-related problems would have a serious impact, causing the country’s social and economic life to take a turn for the worse.

Thus, in well-off urban communities, water services are generally of a high standard. In many poor communities, however, taps that have run dry, unsafe water and unsanitary toilets (or no toilets at all) are part of people’s daily lives.

While South Africa’s water resources are limited, they support a dynamic, growing economy and provision of services. Even so, there are areas in which water is already, or could soon become, a constraint to economic and social development. For example, although flooding is limited to a few localities, drought and drought-related disasters regularly affect communities as well as the national economy. With poverty and inequality continuing to define the experience of the majority of South Africans, it is a cause for concern that many opportunities offered by the water sector for development and social transformation are not being exploited effectively.

Thus, if water security is achieved when the social and productive potential of water has been harnessed adequately to the benefit of all, and its destructive potential is sufficiently contained, South Africa cannot yet be considered fully “water secure”.

Lack of water security is not primarily the result of not having enough water. Internationally, it is recognised that water scarcity does not, in itself, determine the success or failure of a country’s economic and social development. It is more important – and this has been demonstrated at a global level – that countries should recognise the limits of their water endowments and “live within their means”.

Although South Africa uses a relatively high proportion of its available water, studies have shown that there is enough water to meet all the country’s needs until 2025 and beyond. Present problems and future challenges are related mainly to limited financial resources and institutional capabilities, rather than to limitations of the resource. Thus, water crises may arise if the right investments, innovations and management decisions are not made at the right time. This could see jobs and livelihoods being affected, taps running dry and diseases spreading unnecessarily.

The scope of this work is to understand which peculiarities and interconnections influence the management and governance of Transboundary Waters. Particular attention has been posed on how to reach agreements and design institutions that will work well. I will start giving a general introduction on water governance and management. I will then continue focusing more precisely on Transboundary Waters, describing briefly results of past research, importance of cooperation and basic aspects of the topic. The Third Chapter will be devoted to the multi-layered approach that is required, focusing on environmental and ecological dimension, socio-political one, legal background and analytical tools. In the Fourth Chapter a specific case, Klang River, will be analysed, with suggestions about how to proceed to reach an agreement among the parties and finally design an efficient, effective and fair institution. Fifth Chapter will be dedicated to conclusions.

Aside from the issues peace and stability, one of Afghanistan's most vital needs is safe and reliable supplies of water. But Afghanistan faces certain economic, political, institutional problems to develop water resources potential. These problems will increase as the years go by.

Water is an essential component of human right, yet legal framework of its usage, except for navigation is disproportionally underdeveloped. This allows countries to abuse flaws in this framework, which in turn has a negative impact on people. Approaches taken by actors involved in the process of sharing fresh water might determine the future of our planet. The human kind's coexistence (peaceful or non-peaceful) is dependent on that.

Im Disput über die Nutzung und Verteilung des Nilwassers hat sich das Kräfteverhältnis zwischen den großen Rivalen Ägypten und Äthiopien zugunsten Äthiopiens verschoben. Veränderte hydrologische, wirtschaftliche und geopolitische Bedingungen erlauben es Äthiopien, seine Ziele bei der Nutzung der Wasserressourcen stärker als bisher durchzusetzen. Äthiopiens neue Stärke ist gleichbedeutend mit dem Ende der ägyptischen Vormachtstellung in der Nilwasserfrage. Damit verschärft sich der Konflikt um das Nilwasser in der ohnehin krisengeschüttelten Region südlich des Mittelmeers. Die internationalen Akteure sind daher aufgerufen, neue Ansätze der Konfliktbearbeitung auch jenseits der Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) zu verfolgen.

The ―Arab Spring‖—a wave of pro-democracy demonstrations that began in Tunisia in late 2010 and swept across Libya and Egypt—finally reached Syria in early March 2011. The unrest resulted from a combination of socio-economic and political problems that had been building for years and that affect especially Syria‘s large rural population. One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS have been considered the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region. However, four years after the conflict began, it has degenerated into a civil war with more than 200,000 deaths and about 4 million registered refugees. And it has put Syria at the center of nasty geopolitical struggles. In most evaluations of the Syrian civil war an future, the most neglected analysis is: How water resources will affect the ongoing civil war and how changing situation will affect hydropolitics relations between countries after the war. A far m...

To achieve flood protection in the Maritsa River Basin, Greece and Turkey have been forced to take preventative measures. However, these actions have been taken unilaterally making the Maritsa River Basin an example of poor international and transboundary water management. As a transboundary river, water development and management issues in the basin require regional collaboration between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.

Various multi-dimensional governance models have been suggested by scholars and policy makers alike as suitable conceptual lenses through which to view the complexity of water governance, particularly in international river basins. While these models, most notably, the Government–Society–Science and the Hegemonic Politicians models, do provide more holistic pictures of the multiple actors at play and their interactions, the nature of these actor interactions is overly linear, and make them incapable of explaining the numerous processes within complex governance systems. They assume the dominance of a limited number of actors while ignoring various feedback loops. This paper therefore provides a critical review of the Government–Society–Science and the Hegemonic Politicians models. Our alternative perspective is derived from complexity theory as it pertains to water governance. Explaining water governance through the complexity lens highlights the myriad of actors that act within international river basins and the consequences of their actions; something that is lacking within the traditional models. This holds implications not only for decision-making in river basins and water resources management in particular, but also for theoretical developments that feed back into the policy arena. Complexity theory paints a more nuanced picture for the decision maker. We put forward this view using the proposed Epupa Dam on the Kunene River as a case study where various actors interact in the debate around the suggested dam.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo fazer uma análise das relações internacionais na Bacia do Prata, no que tange ao seu aproveitamento hídrico, analisando a (in)efetividade do Tratado da Bacia do Prata. Se, por um lado, as relações hostis entre Brasil e Argentina, decorrentes da incompatibilidade de seus projetos de aproveitamento hidrelétrico do Rio Paraná, nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, caracterizam uma fase predominantemente realista na Bacia do Prata, por outro, o projeto da Hidrovia Paraguai-Paraná, iniciado nos anos 1980, representa a tentativa de afirmação de uma tendência multilateralista das relações internacionais na região, fundamentada na teoria da interdependência complexa.

SUMMARY When one loook at last situation of the Syrian map, it can be seen that the Islamic State is squeezed out of its strongholds in Mosul and Raqqa and witnesses a steady decline in the influx of foreign fighters. As of 2017 July IS has lost 60% of territory, 80% of revenue This brings any other important question: what is next for ISIS? Will it continue to retain control of several urban centers in the region—or will it disband and devote its complete attention to external operations and attacking Europe and the West? Balanche clearly pointied out very curucial issue in his article (2) while it has been out of mind during this chaotic civil war situation.After six year civil war,regardless of who controls the Euphrates Valley agricultural zone next, they will need to address the legacy of failed regime irrigation policies that are once again creating tension among local tribes

Theme:  “Promoting Transboundary Water Cooperation in Asia – Law, governance and institutions explored”
This special collection of papers, ‘The China Water Papers’ aims at exploring how law/governance/institutions promote (or prevent) transboundary water cooperation, with a regional focus on Asia. Comparative regional state practice is examined with a view to distilling possible lessons for Asia, in general, and China, in particular.

As multiple countries share a river, the likelihood of a water resource conflict from climate change could be higher between countries. In this paper, we demonstrate how countries can cooperate in transboundary water sharing in a sustainable way, given the impacts of climate change. In the framework of a stochastic Stackelberg differential game, we have shown that issue linkage can facilitate cooperation among the countries in the event of climate change. We illustrate the case of water sharing of the Volta River between the upstream and downstream country, Burkina Faso and Ghana respectively, where Ghana faces a tradeoff of water use between agriculture in the north and production of hydro energy in the south. Our results indicate that during cooperation, Ghana will have an opportunity to increase its water abstraction for agriculture, which has remained largely restricted. We also find that the equilibrium strategies in the long run steady state distribution are stable even with increasing variances of water flow; and the optimal value for the water abstraction rate of Burkina Faso will decrease or increase with the increase in variances during low and high level of cooperation respectively.

Aside from the issues peace and stability, one of Afghanistan’s most vital needs is safe and reliable supplies of water. But Afghanistan faces certain economic, political, institutional problems to develop water resources potential. These problems will increase as the years go by. Afghanistan is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an economy largely based on subsistence agriculture. Afghan farmers depend on reliable, year-round sources of surface water and groundwater. Seasonal flows of streams and rivers fed by melting snowpack high in Afghanistan’s mountains recharge alluvial aquifers located in populated valleys and provide city dwellers with drinking water. The current population of Afghanistan is about 31 million and it is projected to increase by nearly 80 percent by the year 2050 to approximately 56 million. This will raise demand on the country’s already economic stressed water resources. Almost all of the river basins are transboundary in the country. The Country due...

Based on the theory of the politics of international law and the hermeneutic theory for international relations, this paper aims to demonstrate how the history and contextual changes within the Columbia River Basin have affected the underlying principles of the Columbia River Treaty with those of international water law.

In: Deutsches Institut fuer Urbanistik (Hg.): Brennpunkt Stadt, Lebens und Wirtschaftsraum, gebaute Umwelt, politische Einheit. Festschrift für Heinrich Maeding zum 65. Geburtstag Berlin: Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik, 281-292 (with Roland Scherer).

Das Säbelrasseln Ägyptens in der Nilwasserfrage stößt an seine Grenzen, meint Tobias von Lossow. Da die Notwendigkeit zu kooperieren stetig zunimmt, müssen Ägypten und Äthiopien ihre politischen Absichtserklärungen endlich glaubhaft mit Leben füllen.

Das gesamte Wasserpotenzial des Euphrat-Tigris-Beckens ist etwa 90 km3/a, wovon 60 % in der Türkei, 25 % im Irak, 10 % im Iran und 5 % in Syrien entstehen. Nach einem gerechten, angemessenen, optimalen Endausbau würden Felder von 2,3 Mio. ha in der Türkei, 0,8 Mio. ha in Syrien und 3,5 Mio. ha in Irak bewässert sowie 60 TWh/a in der Türkei, 5 TWh/a in Syrien und über 10 TWh/a im Irak hydroelektrische Energie erzeugt. Des Weiteren werden 100 Mio. Personen und deren Industrie mit Wasser versorgt sowie Hochwasser kontrolliert.

The trans-boundary Euphrates-Tigris-Basin
The total water potential of the Euphrates-Tigris-Basin is about 90 km3/a, with 60 % originating from Turkey, 25 % from Iraq, 10 % from Iran, 5 % from Syria. After equitable, reasonable, optimal ultimate development, the irrigated land will be 2.3 Million ha in Turkey, 0.8 Million ha in Syria, 3.5 Million ha in Iraq; the hydroelectric energy to be generated will be 60 TWh/a in Turkey, 5 TWh/a in Syria, more than 10 TWh/a in Iraq; water will be supplied to 100 Million persons and their industries; floods will be mitigated.

Water security in South Africa Page 2 ... Development Planning Division Working Paper Series No. 12 ... Muller, M. et al. 2009. Water security in South Africa. Development Planning Division. Working Paper Series No.12, DBSA: Midrand ... This review paper provides a synopsis of a set of papers on the theme of water security that the Development Planning Division of the DBSA commissioned in 2009. There is a list of these papers at the back of this document. ... With thanks to Mike Muller, the Wits University Graduate School of Public and ...

Aside from the issues peace and stability, one of Afghanistan’s most vital needs is safe and reliable supplies of water. But Afghanistan faces certain economic, political, institutional problems to develop water resources potential. These problems will increase as the years go by. Afghanistan is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an economy largely based on subsistence agriculture. Afghan farmers depend on reliable, year-round sources of surface water and groundwater. Seasonal flows of streams and rivers fed by melting snowpack high in Afghanistan’s mountains recharge alluvial aquifers located in populated valleys and provide city dwellers with drinking water. The current population of Afghanistan is about 31 million and it is projected to increase by nearly 80 percent by the year 2050 to approximately 56 million. This will raise demand on the country’s already economic stressed water resources. Almost all of the river basins are transboundary in the country. The Country due...

Issues related to water resources can be considered the pioneer to the environmental geopolitics, and they are still on the spot. Thus, it is fundamental to consider the countries which share river basins. This text aimed to make considerations about the way Brazil has made use of its transfrontier river basins, once the discussion of internal actions may subsidize, even more, geopolitical strategic actions in South America. For this, georeferenced data related to national land use for mineral and agricultural activities were aggregated, in a GIS environment, as representing the anthropic process. Afterwards, those pieces of information were integrated into the conservation actions, in this case, represented by the areas considered as priorities by the Brazilian Ministry of Environment. This data integration revealed a central problem, the lack of articulation between the actions for economical development and the proposals for conservation.

When he surveyed the American West in the latter part of the 1800s, John Wesley Powell famously recommended that irrigation systems and state frontiers be based on watershed contours lest the borders result in “a great deal of contention” among jurisdictions. No more prescient words have ever been spoken (US House of Representatives, 1891, p. 254).

Since the end of the Cold War, classical “regional cooperation” has been the most mentioned approach to resolve transboundary water conflicts between riparian states, yet this approach faces new challenges, such as the devastating impacts of prolonged drought as well as ongoing instability and conflicts, thus requiring a new paradigm to water cooperation.Approximately 40% of the global population live in transboundary water basins and growing threats such as climate change emphasise the urgent need for coordinated management of transboundary water bodies. The reality of global change calls for innovative “hydro-diplomacy” aimed at strengthening international collaboration for climate change adaptation under the framework of regional security and win-win politics.
The classical nature of international relations needs to change from a zero-sum game based on resource appropriation to a platform of mutually beneficial and supportive interrelations. This change needs more than intention, and requires a new paradigm. It requires us to identify the most effective mechanisms for governments to engage in regional collaboration that would be effective in managing a shared watercourse.
There is a paradox in that although the vital importance of transboundary water management is continuously emphasised, there has been little advancement in the development of applicable and effective frameworks for realistic international water cooperation in the past decades. This article presents a new paradigm for more realistic international water cooperation and collaboration.