Facilitating treaty formation to govern international rivers

Neda A Zawahri; Shlomi Dinar; Sara McLaughlin Mitchell

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2478.2011.00677.x

Freshwater is a natural resource that is essential for our survival. Although more than two-thirds of our “blue planet” is covered by water, only 2.5% constitutes freshwater. The majority of this freshwater is located in polar ice caps, glaciers, and deep aquifers that are too expensive to exploit. The remaining freshwater stocks are located in rivers and lakes (0.3%), many of which are shared between two or more states. These international rivers comprise 45.3% of the earth's continental land surface \[excluding Antarctica\] (Wolf, Natharius, Danielson, Ward, and Pender 1999). As they transcend political borders, rivers create a complex web of interdependencies that trigger property right contestation and conflict as states attempt to meet their municipal, industrial, and agricultural demands for freshwater.Population growth has increased the demand on the planet's finite supply of freshwater, while climate change is projected to aggravate shortages in water-stressed regions, such as the Middle East and North Africa (International Panel on Climate Change \[IPCC\] (2007). This ever-increasing demand for freshwater has certainly aggravated the potential for interstate conflict, and predictions of “water wars” continue to resonate in the popular press (Russell and Morris 2006). While prophesies of all-out wars over water have been challenged (Wolf and Hamner 2000), studies have focused on the factors that may motivate violent conflict (Naff 1994; Homer-Dixon 1999). Yet, the interdependent relationships rivers impose can also be an impetus for cooperation. In other words, the need to meet domestic water needs, respond to floods and droughts, manage drainage systems and ecosystems, and generate hydropower requires interstate coordination. The literature has thus focused on the factors that motivate and impede cooperation (for example, Le Marquand 1977; Elhance 1999).The majority of studies about conflict and cooperation over international rivers have tended to utilize either the single case …

Facilitating treaty formation to govern international rivers

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