Addis Ababa University , African Water Excellence Center, MODULE SYLLABUS

Course Title: Water Law

Course Code: Laws
Laws 4024
Year 4th
Semester I
Credit Hours: 2
Level: LLB
Mode of Delivery: Extension
Instructor’s Information
Instructor's Name: Ayele Hegena Anabo.
Title: Dr.
Phone No. 0929035072
E-mail: juryayele14@gmail.com
 COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF SHARED
WATER IN AFRICA

 AD 805 and 1984 alone, over 3,600 international water treaties were formulated
 Most of these treaties are navigational use of water; they are not comprehensive
1. Niger Basin Authority
 River basin level water resources management is not new for the continent for
instance, the Niger Basin Agreement was made in 1963, and subsequently, the Niger
River Commission (NRC) was established in 1964
 In 1980, NRC was replaced by the Niger River Authority (NBA)
 NIGER BASIN AUTHORITY CONTINUED…

 The member states of the NRA are Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad,
Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone
 The objective of the Niger Basin Authority is to promote cooperation among the
member countries and to ensure integrated development in the fields of water
quality, hydro-power, navigation, fishing, flood control, economic development,
joint management, irrigation, infrastructure and technical cooperation
 CONTINUED…

2. Chad River Basin

Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) was established in May 22, 1964
Its member states are Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger
and Nigeria
The Commission is a Regional Government Organization, which was
designed to manage the basin water resources and resolve disputes that
might arise over the lake water resources
The Commission initiates, promotes and coordinates water and other natural
resources development and management in the basin.
 3. SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNITY (SADC)

The SADC has made the agreement of shared water resources management in August 1995, and
introduced the Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems with the region and came into force in
September 1998
 The Protocol is legally binding document on the SADC member States
It provides the legal and broad policy framework for cooperation on water resources management;
respect and apply the existing rules of general or customary international law relating to the
utilisation and management of the resources of shared watercourse systems and, in particular,
to respect and abide by the principles of community of interests in the equitable utilization of
those systems and related resources, promotes and facilitates sustainable, equitable and
reasonable utilization of the trans-boundary watercourses, harmonization and monitoring of
legislation and policies, and aiming to ensure equitable sharing of water and also ensure
efficient conservation of the scarce resource
Subsequently, the Protocol was revised in 2000 and came into force in February 2003. In the
revised Protocol, original SADC Shared Watercourse Systems Protocol, 1998, preamble used
 4. NILE BASIN WATER

oThe Nile basin shared water use governance by treaties started in 1929 and 1959
oActually these treaties were not made between river basin countries themselves
oThe former Treaty was formulated between Egypt and the British government during the colonial period. This Treaty
has been widely contested by many of the river basin’s riparian states. On the this treaty there are two different
perspectives;
o Opposition against the Treaty primarily considers it as not ensuring long-term water availability
oIts scope is limited to allocating shared water in a perpetual manner
oMoreover, it lacks the involvement of all riparian states, since it was made between a colonial government and an
independent African state
oThe treaties considered to serve the discrete interests of colonial governments with regards to water allocation, by
deviating equitable uses of water
 CONTINUED…

Supportive perspective considers the Treaty established ‘historic rights’, particularly for
Egypt to halt water security challenges
 The claim uses the water shortage scenario in Egypt as its argument, rather than that of
any other riparian states and tries to attach the water allocation on first –come –first
served principle
 It attaches the water security of Egypt to surface water allocation from Nile River
The 1959 treaty was post-colonial by its time of formulation, and Egypt and Sudan
agreed to extend the rights and obligations indicated in the former treaty; it did not
bring all river basin countries
 CONTINUED…

It is a complementary Treaty, which might not stand by itself

 In particular, the countries agreed to control all the Nile water
by the discourse of full utilization, and they extended the amount
of the quotes that were established by the former treaty
lack of inclusiveness of riparian countries, debates for and
against these treaties are common in Africa’s post-colonial water
debates
 CONTINUED…
 The treaties focus on the allocation of specified amounts of water to the downstream
countries: Egypt and Sudan
 The treaties exclude the riparian states, which are major contributors of water
system development and sustainable management
 The treaties also failed to establish equitability and fairness in the utilisation and
development of water resources, and focus on inequitable water sharing rather than
managing water resources
 They fixed the amount of surface water in terms of the amounts that Egypt and Sudan
are supposed to abstract from the River Nile
 The problem of such a treaty is that it undermines possible variations in water
amounts
 CONTINUED…
As population growth demands more water to satisfy human
needs and healthy ecosystems, sustaining these quantities of
water may not be achievable, as water amounts will not raise
proportionally to population growth
 water levels may decrease considerably with such phenomena
and others
Even when you consider some riparian countries claim today,
they continued to argue the amount water share in the treaties to
sustainable flow without even reducing the drop of water
 5. THE NILE COOPERATIVE FRAMEWORK
AGREEMENT 2010

 On 14 May 2010, four of the Nile riparian states (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and
Rwanda) signed the Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement 2010 (CFA) in Entebbe,
Uganda, and five days later Kenya was joined
 On 28 February 2011, Burundi joined those five states and signed the CFA
 The CFA lays down some basic principles for the protection, use, conservation and
development of the Nile Basin
 The CFA establishes the principle that each Nile Basin state has the right to use, within
its territory, the waters of the Nile River Basin, and lays down a number of factors for
determining equitable and reasonable utilization
CONTINUED…

 The CFA incorporated many international water law principles

such as equitable and reasonable use, no significant harm
and issues cooperation at the forefront.
 the Framework aims to bringing more than ten African
countries, many of the Nile riparian states have already signed
the CFA
 Despite many of riparian states singed this agreement,
majority of them do not yet ratify the agreement including
Egypt and Sudan.
 WATER LAW DEVELOPMENT AT NATIONAL LEVEL IN
AFRICA MEMBER STATES

A recent empirical study of African water resources management indicated that the
introduction of water policies and laws is not coherent between countries, and that
implementation outcomes are too mixed
 In the present day, with ‘most countries in Africa developing new water policies with an
Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach, which accommodates key
features of an effective management system for water resources
 However, these policies should require enacting law that accommodate these key features
to implement.
Some countries have managed to develop them while others are at different stages due to
various reasons
 Many countries in Africa are still without an effective management system for water
resources, and in most the African Member states
 THE AFRICAN UNION LEVEL WATER RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT LAWS

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established in 1963

Under the African Charter that established the OAU, the core objectives were providing coordinated
support to emancipate the African Countries, which were under colonial domination, and to help
resistance against racism
Through the African Charter, the OAU was mandated to provide support for the African countries
under colonial rule
As a driving force, the OAU worked with the assumption that Africa could not be free unless the
entire continent had gained independence and was free from any form of racism Organization of
African Unity, Resolutions Adopted by the First Conference of Independent African Heads of State
and government held Addis Ababa / Ethiopia, Agenda Item II, From 22 to 25 May 1963
 CONTINUED…

The OAU aimed to raise the social, health, nutrition and

sanitation standards of the African people, and giving support to
the United Nations and a demand for an active share in world
trade were also mentioned
the Constitutive Act of the African Union was signed in 2000,
and the African Union (AU), which replaced the OAU, was
established
 CONTINUED…
 the AU aims to achieve:
 Greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the peoples of Africa
 Accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent
 Promote and defend common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples
 Encourage international cooperation; to promote peace, security and stability on the continent
 Promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance
 Promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels, as well as the integration of
African economies
 Promote cooperation in all fields of human activity, to raise the living standards of African peoples and
coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional Economic Communities,
for the gradual attainment of the objectives of the AU
 CONTINUED…
The above mentioned lists of functions entrusted to the African Union suggest
that the legislative competence of African Union does seem focusing on non-
water resources issues
 Even in non-water issues, the mandates seem limited to ‘promotion’ of the
member states than direct intervention
 Having this legislative competence may have its own positive impacts in
shaping the Member States’ behaviours, but it is argued that a mere
‘promotion’ competence may not be enough to regulate unsustainable
water use within the AU.
 CONTINUED…

Subsequently, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was established , which also recognizes the
extension of the mandates of the AU. NEPAD stressed that there are many pressing challenges that the people of
the continent are facing and that need to be addressed by the African Union through coordinated efforts
Overall, NEPAD reinforces the AU’s mission, amongst others, for poverty reduction and the promotion of
sustainable development
Since the establishment of the AU and the introduction of NEPAD, the principle of sustainable development is
one of the key guiding principles, in addition to regional integration, that the AU follows.
Eventually, NEPAD was replaced by an agency called the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Agency
(NEPAC), which handles cross-cutting issues to address NEPAD’s objectives
NEPAC works to address issues such as food crisis that leads to social unrest, climate change and natural
resources’ management, to ensure efficient policy responses within the continent Declaration on the
Implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development(NEPAD) (2001)
 CONTINUED…

for natural resources management, NEPAC promotes adaptive management, participatory

decision-making and an ecosystem based approach
 the Agency envisages addressing incoherent natural resources’ governance and promoting a
system management approach that supports the prevention of a loss of biodiversity,
fragmented habitats and a decline in ecosystems
The AU’s legislative competence seem it has been considerably expanded from the
conventional ideas of the Organization of African Unity
However, the wordings of the legislative competences of the AU seem to be too weak, and
focus more on promotion and facilitating rather than direct intervention
 AFRICAN MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR WATER

 African ministers responsible for water in 41 African countries met in Abuja, Nigeria
(29-30 April 2002) and established the African Ministerial Conference on Water
(AMCOW)
 AMCOW was constituted through the collaboration and commitment of African
governments, regional institutions, civil society groups, development cooperation
partners and financial institutions, working towards the Africa Water Vision 2025
 AMCOW has the duty to provide political leadership, policy direction and advocacy
for the protection, management and wise utilization of all Africa’s water resources, to
enhance the security of water for sustainable development, and for the maintenance of
Africa’s ecosystems to meet both Africa Water Vision for 2025 and the goal of
NEPAD
 CONTINUED…

 AMCOW has been conferred with responsibilities for facilitating sub-regional, regional
and international cooperation, through the coordination of issues relating to water
policies and actions among African countries; for providing assistance in the delivery of
national, sub-regional and regional programmes to translate the Africa Water Vision
2025 into action; for providing a mechanism for monitoring the progress of the
implementation of major regional and global water resources, and water supply and
sanitation initiatives; and for promoting sub-regional and basin and/or sub-basin
cooperation
 AMCOW also : provides a forum for dialogue with UN agencies and other partners on
water issues; champions Africa’s involvement in global and continental studies about
climate change and its impacts, and the development of regional observation networks;
facilitates information exchange; and aims to develop policies and strategies for
addressing the water issues in Africa
 THE AFRICAN WATER VISION 2025

At the African Union level, water resources management was mainly
considered by adopting the Africa Water Vision for 2025
The Africa Water Vision for 2025 provides a blue print for institutional
arrangements for water resource management
The vision underlines the need for ‘an Africa where there is an equitable and
sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty
alleviation, socio-economic development, regional cooperation, and the
environment’
 THE STATEMENTS THE AFRICA WATER VISION 2025

 Ten major issues have been defined to address water security challenges in the African continent.
 These include:
 sustainable access to safe and adequate water supplies and sanitation to meet the basic needs of all;
 sufficient water for food and energy security;
 adequate water for sustaining ecosystems and biodiversity both in terms of quantity and quality;
 reformation of institutions that deal with water resources to create an enabling environment for the
effective and integrated management of water in national and trans-boundary water basins, including
management at the lowest appropriate level;
 water basins that serve as a basis for regional cooperation and development, and are treated as natural assets
for all within such basins;
 CONTINUED…
 an adequate number of motivated and highly skilled water professionals;
 an effective and financially sustainable system for data collection and assessment;
 dissemination for national and trans-boundary water basins;
 effective and sustainable strategies for addressing natural and man-made water-resources problems,
including climate variability and change;
 the finance and pricing of water to promote equity, efficiency and sustainability;
 and, above all, political will, public awareness and commitment for sustainable water-resources
management, including the mainstreaming of gender issues and youth concerns and the use of
participatory approaches.
 CONTINUED…

As an implementation framework, the…

…vision calls for a new way of thinking about water and a new form of regional
cooperation. At the regional level, it calls for partnership and solidarity between countries
that share common water basins. At the national level, it will require fundamental changes
in policies, strategies and legal frameworks, as well as changes in institutional
arrangements and management practices. It will necessitate the adoption of participatory
approaches, management at the lowest appropriate level, and the mainstreaming of gender
issues and the concerns of the youth. At the global level, it will call for assistance from
Africa’s development partners in mobilizing seed funding for priming the urgent
developments needed to underpin sustainable management of the region’s water resources
 WATER DECLARATIONS

 After the adoption of the African Water Vision for 2025, the African Union adopted a dozen water
declarations
 the 2002 the Abuja Declaration was underlines the sustainability of water as a key for the sustainable
development of the continent
 The Declaration considers water resources as being at the centre of social and economic
development, and the environmental sustainability of national, regional and international
development
 the declaration recognizes institutional arrangements for water resources management as one of
challenges to water security within the continent, and encourages member states to manage shared
water resources in a coordinated way
 CONTINUED…

 the Ouagadougou Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment and Poverty

Alleviation express concerns about sustainable livelihoods for the African population
 It was adopted 2004
 The Ouagadougou Declaration calls for member states to introduce programmes and
policies enhancing sustainable development
 the 2008 AU Continental Social Policy Framework provides guidance to member states
with regards to the promotion of rights and ensuring welfare
 In 2008 alone, three declarations, which were directly related to water resources
management, were adopted – the eThekwini Declaration on Sanitation, the Tunis
Declaration, on Accelerating Socio-Economic Growth Through Water Security, and the
Sharm-el-Sheikh Declaration – amongst other water security concerns with regards to
meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in relation to water
CONTINUED…


In 2012, AMCOW would make a decision that aimed at ‘strengthening Africa’s water management
functions at a sub-regional level’, which has been defined as a scale for cooperative arrangements

The 2013 Monrovia Water Declaration was adopted, which accommodates a range of issues in respect of
institutional arrangements for water resource management

Through this and many others, the AU Heads of States and Government have entered into a range of
commitments to enhance the security of water resources

These declarations setting a hallmark start to implement the Africa Water Vision. Hendricks stated that:
‘[i]n fact as we stand here today we cannot, and should not, allow ourselves to just adopt yet
another Ministerial Statement without making very firm and tangible commitments for a “call to
action’’ and ensuring that effective mechanisms are put in place to monitor implementation.’