The challenge of

Managing Trans-Boundary Water Resources

   

RAM AVIRAMPanteion University

11 May 2015

Domestic uses

competing uses

how to mange it?

Indeed – water is a complex systembut…

- within a statea sovereign

Visit 1:

A complex basin is born….

שת"פ מים חוצי גבולות - רם אבירםחיפה - 2014 -

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DEVILS LAKE

שת"פ מים חוצי גבולות - רם אבירםחיפה - 2014 -

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שת"פ מים חוצי גבולות - רם אבירםחיפה - 2014 -

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FOOLDS

• How to contain the floods? Engineering

• Who will bear the costs: The municipality, the state, the Federal Government?

שת"פ מים חוצי גבולות - רם אבירםחיפה - 2014 -

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a trans-boundary water source

“International watercourse” means a watercourse, parts of which are situated in different States;

Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses  (UN, 1997)

Trans-boundary systemis even more complex

Canada :what is the quality of the water?

Three questions 1. who are the players?

2. what can they do to achieve their interests?

3. If there is conflict will there be a war between Canada and the US?

and there are so many such basins

276 – rivers and lakes basins

300 – trans-boundary aquifers

40% of world population live in shared basins

148 countries have at least one shared basin

Issues at hand:

hydrology

sovereignty – interdependency

international law

interests

conflict and cooperation

Visit 2:

The giant and the dwarf having a meal together

La Plata

La Plata

Paraguay Brazil

0.5 m sq km 8.5 m sq km area

6.5 m 203.5 m population

33 b$ 2200 b$ GDP

8.5 b kvh 460 b kvh Energy consumptionyear 

Three questions

• How the water was divided/allocated between the two countries? And in which way: War? Unilateral actions? Agreement?

• If they got “married” - are the sides happy forever and ever?

• When are we going to visit the falls in the picture?

Issues at hand:

dynamics of interactions

power

hegemony

strategy

Visit 3:players shaking suspicious hands

The Indus basin

partition of India 1947

INDIAPAKISTAN

13 years of negotiations

2 nuclear powers3 wars

dispute over Kashmirongoing hostilities

The Treaty is kept by both sides

• 1992 – the Indian authorities announced on their intention to build the Baglihar Dam which will be “according to the Treaty” 

• 1992 – the Pakistani authorities announced that the planned Indian dam is “a breach of the Treaty” 

2007 - The Baglihar Dam

Three questions

Was the dam built after India won a war on it against Pakistan?

Is it possible that 2 sides to an agreement will understand it in opposite ways?

Did any part of the agreement served in the process of  resolution of the conflict?

 

Issues at hand:

negotiations

agreements

institutions

conflict resolution mechanism

Pressures on the sources

 on top of the inherent conflict 

Visit 4:thirsty neighbors…

WWF 7 4.4.6 Sacred rivers JORDAN & ISRAEL

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The Lower Jordan River Basin

Population Growth

Total West of Jordan

R.

East of Jordan

R.

Syria year

5 1 0.5 3.5 195043 12 9 22 2014

X9

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+Climate change

<10% of the original flow

population growth + development + climate change

the world was on alarm…

“The wars of the 21st century will be fought over water ”…

Ismail Serageldin

VP World Bank

INDEED?wars over water?

orlearning how to cooperate

Thank you

and see you in the next year