1.0 Water Cooperation
2.1 What is Water Cooperation?
Every action involving water management requires effective cooperation between multiple actors whether at the local or international scale. Building a village water pump in sub-Saharan Africa requires local actors to cooperate. Bringing water from a river to irrigate farmland requires regional cooperation.
Rivers cross political boundaries and international cooperation is necessary to share the water resources of a transboundary river basin between upstream and downstream users with different and sometimes conflicting needs, claims and cultures. Countries also need to cooperate on the sharing of transboundary groundwater, an important and increasing source of freshwater. In all, there are 276 international basins. These cover around 46% of the Earth’s land surface, host about 40% of the world’s population in 148 nations and account for approximately 60% of global river flow.
If any of the people involved in water management do not cooperate, the ‘cooperation chain’ is broken and water resources will not be managed in the most effective way, with adverse effects on human lives and the economy. When water resources are cooperatively shared and managed, peace, prosperity and sustainable development are more likely to be achieved.
2.2 Effects
Water cooperation builds peace
Access to water can be a source of conflict, but it is also a catalyst for cooperation and peace building. Cooperation on such a practical and vital issue as water management and drinking water supply and sanitation services can help overcome cultural, political and social tensions, and can also build trust and social peace between different groups, genders, communities, regions or states.
The Essay on Soft Manage Peace Company Management
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Water cooperation is the key to socioeconomic development, poverty eradication, social equity, gender equality and environmental sustainability
Universal access to efficient drinking water supply and sanitation services is the foundation for the fulfillment of basic human needs and contributes to the achievement of all the Millennium Development Goals. Inclusive, participatory and gender sensitive governance of water and cooperation between different stakeholders can help to overcome inequity and prevent conflicts in access to water and thus contribute to poverty eradication, socioeconomic development and improve the living conditions and educational chances, especially of women and children.
Water cooperation creates tangible economic benefits
All economic activities depend on water. Cooperation can lead to a more efficient and sustainable use of water resources, e.g. through joint management plans creating mutual benefits and better living conditions, and gender sensitive water governance.
Water cooperation is crucial to preserve water resources, ensure their sustainability and protect the environment
Water cooperation makes possible and promotes the exchange of scientific knowledge, including gender disaggregated data and information, management strategies and best practices, which is fundamental for the protection of the environment and to achieve sustainable development.
2.3 Benefits of Water Cooperation
* Gains from cooperation can include the costs averted by reducing tensions and disputes between neighbors. Strained interstate relations linked to water management can inhibit regional cooperation across a broad front, including trade, transport, telecommunications and labor markets. Obvious examples include the Euphrates, Indus and Jordan Basins.
* Cooperative approaches to river systems can also generate less tangible political benefits. The Nile Basin Initiative links Egypt politically and economically to poor countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. These links have the potential to create spillover benefits. For example, the political standing that Egypt has acquired through the Nile Basin Initiative could reinforce its emergence as a partner and champion of African interests at the World Trade Organization.
The Essay on Water Pollution 16
Water Pollution People keep on throwing trash and industrial wastes into our clean water. If this continues, the quality of our water will deteriorate, and without it everything dies, including us. Water pollution is destroying our world, but fortunately we can count on special treatments for this kind of problem. What is water pollution? "It is the contamination of water by foreign matter such as ...
* Cooperation at the basin level can promote efficient techniques for water storage and distribution, expanding irrigation acreage. The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 was the precursor to the massive expansion of irrigation works in India, which in turn played an important role in the green revolution.
* Cooperation between municipalities and private providers can stimulate resource mobilization. The Tamil Nadu Urban Development Fund, established by state authorities in 1996, developed the Water and Sanitation Pooled Fund—a 300 million rupee facility generated through bond markets for 14 small municipalities—with a partial credit guarantee from the US Agency for International Development.
* At the international level water appears to provide reasons for transboundary cooperation rather than war. Looking back over the past 50 years, there have been some 37 cases of reported violence between states over water—and most of the episodes have involved only minor skirmishes. Meanwhile, more than 200 water treaties have been negotiated. Some of these treaties—such as the Indus Basin Treaty between India and Pakistan—have remained in operation even during armed conflict.
2.0 Challenges for Water Co-operation
Action is needed to improve water resources planning, evaluate availability and needs within watersheds, reallocate or expand existing storage facilities where necessary, emphasize the importance of managing water demand, develop a better balance between equity and efficiency in water use, and overcome inadequate legislative and institutional frameworks and the rising financial burdens of ageing infrastructure.
At each level there are a variety of issues that require water cooperation. Dealing with increasing water scarcity, water abstraction and decision on water allocation, dam construction, and chronic and accidental water pollution by industry, as well as implementation of existing treaty provisions, often requires water cooperation. Water cooperation among stakeholders is often the key for effective and appropriate local level decisions both in cities and in agriculture. As growing populations, urbanization and economic development all require more water for agricultural, municipal and industrial uses, there are greater risks. This said it is usually factors outside the water domain that are decisive in creating situations that require mutually acceptable decisions and agreements.
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Indeed, history has often shown that the vital nature of freshwater is a powerful incentive for cooperation compelling stakeholders to reconcile even the most divergent views. Water more often unites than divides peoples and societies. Since 1948, history shows only 37 incidents of acute conflict over water, while during the same period, approximately 295 international water agreements were negotiated and signed. Clearly, averting disputes is often a strong political driver for initiating cooperation on transboundary waters, as riparian States recognize that they must safeguard their greater common interests.
Equitable sharing of water resources is a complex issue that has only become more so in recent years due to population growth, development pressures, and changing needs and values. The unequal distribution of water is heightened by political changes, resource mismanagement, and climatic anomalies. Inadequate legislative and institutional frameworks coupled with the rising financial burden of aging infrastructures add to this stress. These factors can trigger upheavals as well as demographic and developmental transformations, all of which, in turn, contribute to significant socio-economic differentiations. Growing competition between different sectors and groups has placed increasing strain on the quality and quantity of freshwater supplies. Competition for water also manifests in the demands for different uses – urban versus rural, quantity versus quality, present use versus future demand, and sanitation versus other social priorities. Competition among uses and users has increased in almost all countries, as have the links connecting them, calling for more effective negotiation and allocation mechanisms.
The Essay on Enormous Increase in the Demand of Energy
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3.4 Water demand
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* Among sectoral uses, agriculture is predominant in its water use and consequently management strategies to improve water-use efficiency, especially for irrigated lands, will require specific attention. Production of crops and livestock is water‐intensive, and agriculture alone accounts for 70% of all water withdrawn by the combined agriculture, municipal and industrial (including energy) sectors. The booming demand for livestock products in particular is increasing the demand for water. The global demand for food is expected to increase by 70% by 2050. Best estimates of future global agricultural water consumption (including both rain-fed and irrigated agriculture), are of an increase of about 19% by 2050, but this could be much higher if crop yields and the efficiency of agricultural production do not improve dramatically. Much of the increase in irrigation will be in regions already suffering from scarcity of water. Responsible agricultural water management will make a major contribution to future global water security
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* As regards direct human consumption, the main source of demand comes from urban communities requiring water for drinking, sanitation and drainage. The urban population of the world is forecast to grow to 6.3 billion people in 2050 from 3.4 billion in 2009, representing both population growth and net migration from countryside to city. There is already a backlog of un-served urban populations, and the number of people in cities who lack access to improved water supply and sanitation is estimated to have grown some 20% since the Millennium Development Goals were established. And while 64% of those who gained access to improved sanitation during the period 1990-2008 lived in urban areas, urban areas are struggling to keep up with urban population growth.
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3.5 Water quality and quantity
The geographical nature of rivers and watershed basins is another dimension which can affect the relations between countries and communities. As rivers and tributaries run from highlands to lowlands, the upstream use and treatment of water can have consequences for downstream users. Water quality and quantity are at the center of upstream-downstream disputes.
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Factors effecting water quality and leading to contamination include agricultural runoff, industrial discharges, residential sewage disposal and land-use changes. These types of contamination can have deleterious impacts on drinking water supplies, the health of ecosystems and fish habitat on which humans depend, and on agricultural and industrial production systems that require high-quality and uncontaminated water supplies. Upstream and downstream water treatment is possible but costly.
Upstream users –who control sources – can significantly impact the quantity and flows of water to downstream users (e.g. the Nile, Sudan and Egypt).
Extensive and increasing upstream withdrawals may lead to limited water supplies for downstream uses. In some extreme cases, even large rivers fail to meet the ocean now due to over-extraction, large water diversions and climate change (e.g. The Yellow River, Murray-Darling, Colorado River).
Dams’ construction can particularly impact upstream-downstream relations. Dams may provide significant benefits for society as a stable source of renewable energy, drinking water storage and sources of water for irrigation and other production uses. Best practices for dam development have also improved significantly over the years (e.g. natural flow regimes, fish stairways).
But as demand for water increases globally, dam construction can be a particularly contentious and complex issue, with the ability to effect both allocation and upstream-downstream uses given their potential to effect the timing and flows to downstream reaches, flood upstream reaches, displace populations, affect surrounding ecosystems and fish migration routes and habitat. Therefore, they deserve special consideration when discussing conflict mediation and identifying possibilities for cooperation by sharing the benefits that dam provide.
3.6 Climate change
Adding to the already complex nature of water resource management are the uncertainty and compounding factors related to climate change. These will magnify regional differences in the world’s natural resources and assets and lead to an increased risk of inland flash floods and more frequent coastal flooding, droughts, etc. Relying on static models for forecasting water events is no longer feasible and this requires solutions and management plans to be adaptive and resilient by including provisions that account for climate change. The necessity to adapt to climate change, however, will also offer new opportunities for cooperation in developing adaptation strategies.
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3.7 Financing
Improving financing at all levels and strengthening financial institutions and their policies to help support the water sector is necessary to help create an attractive investment environment for actors and stakeholders in the water sector. In a recent UN-Water survey, for a majority of participating countries, obtaining finance was reported as being of ‘high’ or ‘highest’ priority. The availability of grants and funds; opportunities for private enterprise; and strong legal and administrative frameworks surrounding the water sector can help in this area. Financing means mobilizing funds for water resource management (for improving water committees, capacity building development-consensus building, basin organizations, monitoring, data collection) and water infrastructure (water and sewage treatment plants, distribution networks, sanitation facilities, dams, etc).
A mixture of financing mechanisms and various sources of financial resources is typically used for transboundary water management: from national budgets and external bilateral or multilateral donors funded projects to more strategic programs and funds or private public partnerships (e.g. the Mekong River Basin Development and Management).
Investment needs in most cases exceed the resources available to riparian countries; therefore various financing mechanisms are being developed and employed. International development banks or specialized development funds are successfully testing a number of innovative approaches such as strategic partnerships comprising regional funds, leveraging significant additional investment through these funds. Other innovative financing schemes, e.g. regional revolving funds, payment for ecosystem services, inter-riparian financing and cost recovery of water services, could be considered as options for sustainable financing of transboundary water management institutions. However, these require strong political support, good governance and appropriate institutional structures.
