Transboundary Water

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According to the United Nations, there are 276 international rivers shared by two or more countries and 200 identified transboundary aquifers (UNESCO, 2013). Transboundary river basins cover 50% of Earth’s surface (excluding Antarctica) and channels 60% of global streamflow (Biswas, 1999). Some 40% of the world’s population live within transboundary lake and river basins and two billion people depend on over 300 transboundary aquifer systems (Du and Zhong, 2011).
8.1 TRANSBOUNDARY WATERS AND THE ROLE OF THE STATE
Worldwide, countries have found more cost-effective to exploit water sources within their jurisdiction than to invest on water management strategies. The only remaining sources of water that can now be developed are mostly transboundary in nature (Biswas, 1999; Black and King, 2009).
Countries manage their shared watercourses considering their own national priorities, commonly overlooking water needs up, or downstream (Kreamer, 2012; Zeitoun, 2013). As this tendency grows, pressure over management enhancement and institutional governance at national and international level challenges the state accountability to cope with contemporary transboundary issues and future threats (Suhardiman and Giordano, 2012; Tarlock, 2000). Even though the role of state actors as the key players in international water affairs is not questionable, it is agreed that their role has been insufficient to understand actual challenges of transboundary water management. There is recognition of participation of non-state networks, institutional soft power alliances on decision-making processes and the existence of the scalar relationships and interactions between regional, national, sub-national and local influences (Sanchez and Kaiser, 2011; Zeitoun...

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...limate change as one of the challenges for transboundary water management, the actual international legal framework (bilateral and multilateral agreements) will also be adversely affected. Generally, transboundary agreements have not been designed to cope with increased climate variability, as they are often restricted by rigid definitions of water allocation rather than percentages. The certainty of climate variability results in an increased pressure over alternative governance structures, potentially diminishing the legitimacy of weak international agreements (Suhardiman and Giordano, 2012). The declaration of the United Nations in 2013 as the International Year of Cooperation, which foster states and other non-state actors to promote actions to achieve cooperation in water related goals, aims the international need for new transboundary governance assessments.

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