On 22 April 2009, Tunisia became the 17th nation to ratify the UN Convention on the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses. The Convention represents the UN’s effort to codify customary international law for transboundary fresh water resources. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1997 by a vote of 103 in favor, 27 abstentions, and 3 against, with 33 Members absent (see my analysis of the vote here). Tunisia’s ratification is likely due, in part, to the efforts of the World Wildlife Fund, which in recent years, has embarked on an effort to convince countries to sign on to the Watercourse Convention.
While Tunisia’s ratification is certainly a laudatory and welcomed development, the tally of Convention 17 ratifications is still shy of the 35 ratifications needed to bring the instrument into force (you can find the status of the Convention here). However, the real value of the Convention is not in its possible ratification at some future date. Rather, it is in the development of local and regional agreements that follow the general principles articulated in the Convention.
The Watercourse Convention was designed to serve as a framework for more specific bilateral and regional agreements relating to the use, management and preservation of transboundary water resources. Additionally, it was intended to help prevent and resolve conflicts over international water resources, and to promote sustainable development and the protection of global water supplies. Even before its adoption by the General Assembly, its draft (formulated by the UN International Law Commission) had already influenced the drafting of local and regional arrangements including the 1992 UN/ECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, the 1995 SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems (revised in 2000), the 1995 Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin, and the 1991 Protocol on Common Water Resources concluded between Argentina and Chile. It also seems to have had considerable weight in the development of 1999 Draft Protocol to the above-noted 1992 UN/ECE Watercourses/Lakes Convention and was referred to by the International Court of Justice in the Gabcíkovo-Nagymaros case where the Court affirming the centrality of the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization.
While I certainly applaud Tunisia’s ratification and the efforts of WWF, I would much prefer to see greater efforts made at developing agreements among basin riparians. Currently, of the 263 international river and lake basins found on Earth, 153 (nearly 60%) still lack an agreement. Moreover, of the 106 basins that have more than 2 riparians and that have an agreement, only 20% of those agreements involve more than 2 of the riparians. Clearly, this is woefully short of what is needed. As for transboundary ground waters, the situation is more dire. Presently, there is only one agreement over a transboundary aquifer (between France and Switzerland over the Genevese Aquifer) and two data sharing arrangements in northern Africa (on the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer and on the Western Sahara Aquifer). In contrast, a recent study prepared under UNESCO’s and IAH’s ISARM (Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management) Initiative, indicates that there are at least 273 transboundary aquifers worldwide.
Given current water stress and scarcity in many parts of the world, as well as the growing peril from climate change, which threatens to worsen water availability worldwide, the need for cooperation and coordination over shared water resources is greater than it has ever been. While a framework global instrument can provide the guidelines by which to manage transboundary waters, it will be the local and regional agreements that achieve real success in the challenge to secure all peoples and all nations adequate fresh water.