1 st WARFSA/WaterNet Symposium: Sustainable Use of Water Resources; Maputo, November 2000
CHALLENGES OF SHARING INTERNATIONAL WATERS
Jonathan I. MATONDO
University of Swaziland
Private Bag 4 Kwaluseni, Swaziland
KEYWORDS: Challenges, strategies, negotiations, sharing, watercourses, agreement, equitable sharing
of water.
ABSTRACT
Water plays a fundamental, pervasive , critical role in every economy and thus is very important in almost
all aspects of the human endeavour. It is worth to remember that, ancient civilization grew up in the river
valleys such as Euphratis and Tigris, the Nile river etc. In Egypt, the waters of the Nile is their life blood
and the Tukano of the Amazon compare water on the earth to the blood in their veins. Forty seven
percent of the land area of the earth is drained by international rivers. Since rivers and their tributaries
know no political boundaries, there are 44 countries with areas within international waters. In Africa, there
are 11 rivers that drain more than four riparian states with the largest river draining through 10 riparian
states.
Water is a renewable resource through the hydrological cycle, but it is unevenly distributed in time and
space. The ever increasing world population is already putting pressure on the available merger
resource. The expected climatic changes due to global warming up is expected to cause flooding in other
areas and drought related problems in certain areas. Therefore, in order to realize a distribution of water
to drought prone areas or water deficit countries, strategies will have to be developed to control the flow
regimes of international rivers and thus facilitate water availability in drought prone areas. One of the
strategies is the equitable sharing of international river waters which is difficulty. It is therefore, the
purpose of this paper to discuss the challenges of sharing international waters which are: lack of
hydrological, physical and social economic data; lack of water use and/or water management plans; lack
of institutional framework and the difficulties with the enforcement of the international water law.
INTRODUCTION
Water plays a fundamental, pervasive, critical role in every economy and is thus very important in almost
all aspects of the human endeavour. It is worth to remember that, ancient civilization grew up in river
valleys such as Euphrates and Tigris, the Nile river etc. In Egypt, the waters of the Nile river is their life
blood and the Tukano of the Amazoni regard the water in the earth to the blood in people=s veins. To
quote Dowdeswell (1998) AWater is a physiologically essential to our survival. It subsidizes, directly or
indirectly, to all agricultural and industrial activities@.
Water is a renewable resource through the hydrological cycle, but it is unevenly distributed in time and
space. The land areas of the world excluding Antactica which falls under international drainage basins
that are shared by two or more riparian states is about 47 percent (Dowdeswell, 1998). There are 44
countries with at least 80 percent of their total area within international drainage basins. In Africa, 11
rivers drain through four or more riparian states with the largest traversing through 10 riparian countries.
Such rivers also pass through several climatic regions and therefore, high flow variability at certain points.
The ever increasing world population is already putting pressure on the merger available fresh water
resource. The expected climatic changes is expected to cause flooding in other areas and drought related
problems in certain areas. Therefore, in order to realize the distribution of water to drought prone or water
deficit countries, strategies will have to be developed to control the flow regimes of international rivers and
thus facilitate water availability in drought prone areas and during time of water scarcity.
Challenges of sharing international waters 1
, 1 st WARFSA/WaterNet Symposium: Sustainable Use of Water Resources; Maputo, November 2000
It is therefore, the purpose of this paper to introduce , albert in outline form, the challenges of sharing
international waters. More specifically the paper will address itself to the following constraints .
i) Lack of hydrological, physical and social economic data
ii) Lack of water use plans and/or water management plans
iii) Lack of institutional framework
iv) Difficulties with the enforcement of the international water law
LACK OF INFORMATION
The inventory of the water resource of an international river basin is a pre-requisite to the sharing of
international water resource among riparian states. Data (hydro-meteorology, physical, environmental,
socio-economic etc.) is very important for the planning, development, operation and management of water
resource schemes. Data collection is usually a hard task especially for developing countries. This is
usually due to lack of capital, trained personnel etc. Data collection in hydro-meteorology requires the
use of specialized equipment which has to be purchased from abroad. The use of such equipment also
requires highly trained personnel even if it is at a technician level. This requires a high budget and with
a high competition for funding among the sectors in a country, water departments receive a low budget
for data collection activities. Some governments in developing countries do not see the importance of data
collection, and given the fact that data collection in water resources (hydrology) is a continuous process.
Therefore, such efforts also suffer continuously.
Therefore, hydro-meteorological data is usually not available at all especially for sub catchments in
remote areas where accessibilty is difficulty. The Hydromet survey project which was initiated during the
70's around the lakes in the upper catchment of the Nile river basin was intended to collect information
which could help in the inventory of the water resource of the catchment. However, this project had to
come to an end and its objectives were not fully accomplished baring in mind that data collection in
hydrology is a continuous process.
Approaches are available in the literature for the planning of water resource schemes with inadequate
data. However, uncertainties still do exist and therefore, it is difficulty to convince the decision makers on
the use of such techniques especially when it involves international waters.
The sharing of international water requires a commitment of the governments of riparian states.
Therefore, if a riparian state does not know the available water resource which is coming from that part
of a watershed within its territory, it is difficulty for such a state to commit herself on the sharing of the
international water resource. The second constraint involves the use of water from a watershed within her
territory. If a riparian state does not have plans for the use of her waters, then it is difficult for her to make
commitments on the sharing of the international water. It should be emphasized that the above
constraints are as a result of lack of data (hydro-meteorological data).
An example to the above constraints in sharing international water is the Mara river basin which also
happens to be a tributary to the Nile river through Lake Victoria. The Mara river originates in Kenya and
passes through the northern eastern part of Tanzania and into Lake Victoria. Tanzania had wanted to
develop a hydro power scheme on the Mara river. However, the contribution of the catchment which is
within Tanzania above the hydro power plant site is only 20%. Tanzania then approached Kenya with the
objective of negotiating how much water Kenya was willing to make available for sustainable operation
of the hydro power plant. At that time Kenya had not made plans on the utilization of the water of the Mara
river. Kenya told Tanzania to go ahead with their plans, but
Kenya will not put into consideration when it comes to the use of the water of the Mara river in the future.
That is, when the right time comes on the use of water of the Mara river, Kenya will plan and use the
water irrespective of what is happening down stream. Tanzania had to stop the project because it was not
prepared to take the risk of having a hydro power scheme without enough water
to run it. The right approach though would have been the development of a joint hydro power project
between Tanzania and Kenya on the Mara river. Being a joint project both countries would find an
equitable way of sharing the waters of the Mara river basin, hopefully with minor conflicts. An example of
Challenges of sharing international waters 2
CHALLENGES OF SHARING INTERNATIONAL WATERS
Jonathan I. MATONDO
University of Swaziland
Private Bag 4 Kwaluseni, Swaziland
KEYWORDS: Challenges, strategies, negotiations, sharing, watercourses, agreement, equitable sharing
of water.
ABSTRACT
Water plays a fundamental, pervasive , critical role in every economy and thus is very important in almost
all aspects of the human endeavour. It is worth to remember that, ancient civilization grew up in the river
valleys such as Euphratis and Tigris, the Nile river etc. In Egypt, the waters of the Nile is their life blood
and the Tukano of the Amazon compare water on the earth to the blood in their veins. Forty seven
percent of the land area of the earth is drained by international rivers. Since rivers and their tributaries
know no political boundaries, there are 44 countries with areas within international waters. In Africa, there
are 11 rivers that drain more than four riparian states with the largest river draining through 10 riparian
states.
Water is a renewable resource through the hydrological cycle, but it is unevenly distributed in time and
space. The ever increasing world population is already putting pressure on the available merger
resource. The expected climatic changes due to global warming up is expected to cause flooding in other
areas and drought related problems in certain areas. Therefore, in order to realize a distribution of water
to drought prone areas or water deficit countries, strategies will have to be developed to control the flow
regimes of international rivers and thus facilitate water availability in drought prone areas. One of the
strategies is the equitable sharing of international river waters which is difficulty. It is therefore, the
purpose of this paper to discuss the challenges of sharing international waters which are: lack of
hydrological, physical and social economic data; lack of water use and/or water management plans; lack
of institutional framework and the difficulties with the enforcement of the international water law.
INTRODUCTION
Water plays a fundamental, pervasive, critical role in every economy and is thus very important in almost
all aspects of the human endeavour. It is worth to remember that, ancient civilization grew up in river
valleys such as Euphrates and Tigris, the Nile river etc. In Egypt, the waters of the Nile river is their life
blood and the Tukano of the Amazoni regard the water in the earth to the blood in people=s veins. To
quote Dowdeswell (1998) AWater is a physiologically essential to our survival. It subsidizes, directly or
indirectly, to all agricultural and industrial activities@.
Water is a renewable resource through the hydrological cycle, but it is unevenly distributed in time and
space. The land areas of the world excluding Antactica which falls under international drainage basins
that are shared by two or more riparian states is about 47 percent (Dowdeswell, 1998). There are 44
countries with at least 80 percent of their total area within international drainage basins. In Africa, 11
rivers drain through four or more riparian states with the largest traversing through 10 riparian countries.
Such rivers also pass through several climatic regions and therefore, high flow variability at certain points.
The ever increasing world population is already putting pressure on the merger available fresh water
resource. The expected climatic changes is expected to cause flooding in other areas and drought related
problems in certain areas. Therefore, in order to realize the distribution of water to drought prone or water
deficit countries, strategies will have to be developed to control the flow regimes of international rivers and
thus facilitate water availability in drought prone areas and during time of water scarcity.
Challenges of sharing international waters 1
, 1 st WARFSA/WaterNet Symposium: Sustainable Use of Water Resources; Maputo, November 2000
It is therefore, the purpose of this paper to introduce , albert in outline form, the challenges of sharing
international waters. More specifically the paper will address itself to the following constraints .
i) Lack of hydrological, physical and social economic data
ii) Lack of water use plans and/or water management plans
iii) Lack of institutional framework
iv) Difficulties with the enforcement of the international water law
LACK OF INFORMATION
The inventory of the water resource of an international river basin is a pre-requisite to the sharing of
international water resource among riparian states. Data (hydro-meteorology, physical, environmental,
socio-economic etc.) is very important for the planning, development, operation and management of water
resource schemes. Data collection is usually a hard task especially for developing countries. This is
usually due to lack of capital, trained personnel etc. Data collection in hydro-meteorology requires the
use of specialized equipment which has to be purchased from abroad. The use of such equipment also
requires highly trained personnel even if it is at a technician level. This requires a high budget and with
a high competition for funding among the sectors in a country, water departments receive a low budget
for data collection activities. Some governments in developing countries do not see the importance of data
collection, and given the fact that data collection in water resources (hydrology) is a continuous process.
Therefore, such efforts also suffer continuously.
Therefore, hydro-meteorological data is usually not available at all especially for sub catchments in
remote areas where accessibilty is difficulty. The Hydromet survey project which was initiated during the
70's around the lakes in the upper catchment of the Nile river basin was intended to collect information
which could help in the inventory of the water resource of the catchment. However, this project had to
come to an end and its objectives were not fully accomplished baring in mind that data collection in
hydrology is a continuous process.
Approaches are available in the literature for the planning of water resource schemes with inadequate
data. However, uncertainties still do exist and therefore, it is difficulty to convince the decision makers on
the use of such techniques especially when it involves international waters.
The sharing of international water requires a commitment of the governments of riparian states.
Therefore, if a riparian state does not know the available water resource which is coming from that part
of a watershed within its territory, it is difficulty for such a state to commit herself on the sharing of the
international water resource. The second constraint involves the use of water from a watershed within her
territory. If a riparian state does not have plans for the use of her waters, then it is difficult for her to make
commitments on the sharing of the international water. It should be emphasized that the above
constraints are as a result of lack of data (hydro-meteorological data).
An example to the above constraints in sharing international water is the Mara river basin which also
happens to be a tributary to the Nile river through Lake Victoria. The Mara river originates in Kenya and
passes through the northern eastern part of Tanzania and into Lake Victoria. Tanzania had wanted to
develop a hydro power scheme on the Mara river. However, the contribution of the catchment which is
within Tanzania above the hydro power plant site is only 20%. Tanzania then approached Kenya with the
objective of negotiating how much water Kenya was willing to make available for sustainable operation
of the hydro power plant. At that time Kenya had not made plans on the utilization of the water of the Mara
river. Kenya told Tanzania to go ahead with their plans, but
Kenya will not put into consideration when it comes to the use of the water of the Mara river in the future.
That is, when the right time comes on the use of water of the Mara river, Kenya will plan and use the
water irrespective of what is happening down stream. Tanzania had to stop the project because it was not
prepared to take the risk of having a hydro power scheme without enough water
to run it. The right approach though would have been the development of a joint hydro power project
between Tanzania and Kenya on the Mara river. Being a joint project both countries would find an
equitable way of sharing the waters of the Mara river basin, hopefully with minor conflicts. An example of
Challenges of sharing international waters 2
