Transboundary Shared Waters: Regional Case Studies

by J. de Schutter, Rotterdam, October 2009.

Potential conflict areas for scarse water sharing are found in numerous places around the world and vary much in both complexity and urgency.

Usually problems are still solved by force (of upstream countres) and not by negotiation and sonsensus.

Water resources sharing requieres a common framework for decision making, common access to information, openness and participation.

Water resources sharing requires an agreed institutional and legal framework and ways to enforce decisions.

Desision support systems based on joint monitoring data, shared databases and agreed indicators are powerful tools in IRBM.

The Nethelands, with international partners should use its specific water management experience and ambitions to be the international legal centre of world to establish a Global Centre for Water Law and Governance.