International Law & Water

1) Evolution of International Water Law

2) Examples of Transboundary Management
Agreements
3) Application in the Middle East
Evolution of Basic Principles of
International Water Law
 Sources of International Law

 Conventions
 Customary Law
 General Principles
 Judicial Decisions
 Resolutions
Transboundary Water Resources

“There are 286 international

drainage basins in the world
that are shared between two
or more sovereign nations”
 Century 21

Vice president of the World Bank

quoted in New York Times in 1995:

“The wars of the next century will

be about water.”

Water Stress Growing in dozens of

transboundary systems
 The 20 Century
th

412 crises between 1918 and 1994

Only 7 had armed actions over water.

- India / Pakistan over the Indus (1948)

- Israel / Syria –Jordan watershed (1951/’65)
- Egypt/Sudan over the Nile (1958)
- Iraq / Syria over Euphrates (1975)
- Mauritania /Senegal over Senegal River (1989)
 Euphrates Time Line
Keban and Tabqa dams fill Late 1973
Syria agrees to Iraqi requests to allow additional flow
of 200 MCM/yr to Iraq
Mid 1974

Iraq claims that flow in Euphrates has dropped from

normal 920 m 3 /sec to 197 m 3 /sec and requests
that Arab League intervene; Syria claims less than
1975
average flow and drops out of Arab League

Mediation by Saudi Arabia leads to agreement that

averts war (though agreement is not made public); June 3,
Syria uses 42% of water and allows 58% to flow to 1975
Iraq
Protocol of the Joint Economic Council is established
between Turkey and Iraq, which allows for Joint Technical 1980
Committee meetings relating to water resources

Syria begins participating in the Joint Economic Council 1983

Tripartite meeting between Turkish, Syrian, and Iraqi

11/1986
ministers with few results

Turkish Prime Minister visits Damascus and signs

agreement for Turks to guarantee 500 m 3 /sec across the 1987
border to Syria

Talks between three countries held when Turkey begins

filling the Ataturk Dam, shutting off flow to the Euphrates
1/1990
for 30 days; Iraq insists that 500 m 3 /sec reaches its
border; Gulf War breaks out
Turkish, Syrian, and Iraqi water officials convene in Damascus but
break up after Turkey rejects Iraqi request that flows crossing the 9/1992
Turkish border increase from 500 m 3 /sec to 700 m 3 /sec

Bilateral talks between Turkish Prime Minister and Syrian President

where a range of issues are discussed to improve country relations; the
1/1993
two countries agree to resolve the issue of Euphrates water allocation
by the end of 1993

Joint Syria-Iraq water coordination committee convenes in Damascus ;

here the two sides discuss what would be a fair and reasonable
2/1996
distribution of the Euphrates and Tigris between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq
; Syria and Iraq decide to coordinate their positions on the water dispute

Turkey threatens military action against Syria if it continues to harbor

8/1998
PKK rebels
Adana Agreement signed by Turkey and Syria, in which Syria agrees to
10/1998
ban PKK rebels from the country
Syria and Turkey agree on a protocol of cooperation for Turkey 's GAP
and Syria 's corresponding GOLD (General Organization for Land 8/2001
Development) projects
 Report 2 & Presentation
 G1: Nile River Basin – All Time
 G2: Danube River Basin – All time
 G3: Jordan River Basin 1980s –
Present

1-2 Pages, Table format, Presentation

Dead line = 20/3/2011 Sunday

None of these conflicts ended up in a
full-scale war!

In recorded history – only 1 war seems

to have been entirely about water:

Umma and Lagash over the Tigris

River – 4,500 years ago!
 Water as a Source of
Agreement
3,600 international treaties relating to
water resources during past 1200 years

600 treaties deal with non-navigational

aspects of water management (since 1814)

Some 150 water treaties this century

Research shows that water is a greater

force for agreement than conflict
 Evolution of Customary
Principles

Perspectives on Allocations 4
Helsinki Accord – 1966

UN Convention on the Non-Navigational

Uses of International Watercourses
Surface v. Groundwater
(The Bellagio Treaty)
Principles for Allocation of Water in Inter. Law
(Historically: Four approaches)

Riparian Rights:

-Originates w/ U.S. attempt to dominate

Mexico

-Considered Out-of Date

(Good for Upstream Countries)

-Invoked Syria re. the Yarmouk

Historical Rights/Natural Flow

-Past usage creates rights, (first come first

serve)

-Has link to property laws

-Egypt is leading supporter

(Good for Downstream Countries)
 Absolute Riverain Integrity/
Community of International Waters

-Views entire River Basin as holistic unit

-Political sovereignty doesn’t influence
decisions.
-No Riparian may act w/o agreement of
others
-Invoked in “federal contexts”
-Impractical in international contexts
 Limited Territorial Sovereignty:

Principle Rule: Use property in a way that

doesn’t harm others:

-Take into account needs of other states

-“use resource so long as such use does not

result in substantial harm to water
interests of other riparians”

-Fuzzy re. Details: (ex. What are

agricultural needs?)
Leading Case supporting “Limited Territorial
Sovereignty”: Lake Lanoux Arbitration
1957:

Facts:
 Dispute over hydroelectric plant

 Spain brings claim against France

 French plan to divert waters from

lake to ocean and away from Spain’s

Carol River
Lake Lanoux Arbitration (ctd)
 France Argues

 Full amount will be returned to

Carol
 Annual Minimum Guaranteed
 An independent commission will
supervise
Lake Lanoux Arbitration (ctd)
 Spain Argues

 Change will effect the entire Carol

system
 Hygeographic basin will be altered
Lake Lanoux Arbitration (ctd)
 Arbitration rules:

 France’s extraction doesn’t violate

international law
 Spain must be consulted.
 In rejecting Spanish claim,
implicitly reject veto powers of a
given riparian.
 1966 – Helsinki Rules
-Approved by the International Law Association
(ILA)

Defines:
-International drainage basin as

“ a geographical area extending over two or more

States determined by the watershed limits of the
system of waters, including surface and
underground waters flowing into a common
terminus”
 Helsinki’s - Equitable Allocation

- Article 4:
“Each Basin State is entitled within its territories
to a reasonable and equitable share in the
beneficial uses of the waters in an international
drainage basin.

-Article 5:
“reasonable & equitable” to be determined in
light of all relevant factors in each case.
 Equitable Allocation of Water:
What does it mean?

Article 5 – the “relevant factors”

Basin geography
Basin hydrology
Climate
Past and Existing Utilization
Economic and Social Needs
Dependence of population on basin waters
“comparative costs of alternative means of
satisfying economic and social needs, availability
of other resources, avoid of unnecessary
conflicts, degree to which needs of basin state
are satisfied.”
 UN Convention on the Non-
Navigational Uses of International
Watercourses
- Adopted Sept.1997 by UN General Assembly-
- Process took 25 years!
- Contains 37 articles addressing wide issues

(flood control, water quality,

erosion, sedimentation,
salt-water intrus., living resources.)
Treaty focuses on surface water
but does include GW components.
 UN Water Course
Convention-the Basics
- UN members obligated to use international
water courses in ways that are “equitable and
reasonable”

- Other states have right to demand reasonable

use.

- Mandates cooperation, information sharing.

- Article 5 – obligation to take all appropriate

measures to prevent the causing of significant
harm to other states by any misuse of
transboundary water resources.
Transbounday Groundwater
Surface & Ground Water Hydrology
Interaction of Surface & Ground Water
Saline Water Intrusion
The Bellagio Draft Treaty: Towards A
Customary Law for Groundwater

- During 1980s scholars anticipated

need for framework.
- Worked for 8 years to draft a
“Model Treaty”
- 1987 the treaty was finalized but still it is
not adopted by the UN or any country
 The Bellagio Draft Treaty:
The Basic Principle Is:

water rights should be determined by“

mutual agreement rather than be the
subject of uncontrolled, unilateral taking
and that rational conservation and
protection actions require joint resource
”.management machinery
 Article VIII: Comprehensive
Management Plans
 Water Quality Protection
 Transboundary Groundwater Conservation
Areas
 Comprehensive Management Plans
 Planned Depletion
 Public Health Emergencies
 Transboundary Transfers
 Planning for Drought
 Article X: Planned Depletion
 1. The Commission, after evaluation of all
relevant considerations, may prepare and, with
the consent of the Governments, may approve a
plan for the depletion of an aquifer over a
calculated period. The plan may apportion the
uses and specify the rates and means of
extraction of the transboundary groundwaters,
and may authorize advances, exchanges and
transboundary transfers of water consistent with
the objectives of the Depletion Plan.