Water Security Need for Cross Country Cooperation

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Water SecurityNeed for Cross Country Cooperation

• Nidhi Srivastava, TERI
• Devika Sharma, TERI

September 29th 2009 CoCoon Match Making Workshop
Hanoi
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Presentation Outline

• Water security
• Transnational nature of water
• Water conflicts and disputes
• Need for regional cooperation
• Some key features of regional cooperation for
  water governance and security

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Water Security

• ensuring that freshwater, coastal and related
  ecosystems are protected and improved that
  sustainable development and political stability
  are promoted, that every person has access to
  enough safe water at an affordable cost to lead a
  healthy and productive life and that the
  vulnerable are protected from the risks of
  water-related hazards.
• - Ministerial Declaration of The Hague on Water
  Security, World Water Forum 2000

• Availability
• Access
• Quality
• Exercise of rights
• Equity and affordability
• Decision making

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Transnational nature of water

• Traverses legal and political delineations
• Transnational in its reach, uses and implications
• Linkages between actions and impacts in upper
  riparian and lower riparian states
• Challenges like climate change manifest itself in
  its regional and local implications on river
  systems
• Although transnational, an important resource to
  strengthen national security
• Equitable access and distribution of water both
  inter-state and intra state linked to security
  concerns (traditional non-traditional)

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Hydro politics Water conflicts and cooperation

• There may not have been many water wars but
  water conflicts are a reality
• Conflict/ Tension points at interstate and intra
  state levels
• Conflicts are not so much about availability but
  access, therefore, a governance issue
• Power asymmetry, inadequate information flow,
  unilateral decision-making etc. drive the
  disputes
• Historically, there have been more instances of
  cooperation than conflict (Yoffee, Wolf etal.)
  but new developments and challenges require a
  deeper understanding of conflicts around water
• changing dynamics of governance, climate change,
  altered flow and quality of water, broader
  definition of security

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Water conflicts in South Asia
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Why cooperate?

• Principles of international water law
• Helsinki rules and UN Convention on International
  Watercourses

• Conflict resolution
• Over river boundaries
• Over quantity and quality of water
• Over use and development of natural resources
• Resolution of conflicting claims
• Environmental security and climate change
  concerns
• Addressing the serious dearth of data for the
  climatic impact on the South Asian river systems
• Filling the research gaps harmoniously on impacts
  of climate change on transnational basins and the
  lower riparian states
• Suggesting an eco-system approach to governance
  of fragile zones transcending political
  boundaries
• Energy security
• Harnessing the hydropower potential for the
  region rather than individual states
• Joint development and exploration activities as
  against competing amongst each other

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Hydro-hegemony to Hydro-solidarity

• Cooperation should not be seen as a goal in and
  of itself, and effective cooperation is required
  to meet the goals of the co-riparian (SIWI, 2009)
• Every basin has its own unique problems,
  conflicts and solutions, therefore, the need for
  basin approach rather than mere political
  boundaries
• Cooperation has to be at all levels
• State and non-state actors
• People centric approach to water management
• Cooperation mechanisms need to be flexible and
  dynamic to address new and emerging challenges
• Smooth and timely flow of information is key
• Institutions for cooperative actions towards
  water security
• Capacity building of all parties to check
  hydro-hegemony
• Harmonized analysis of benefits and impacts

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Some current cooperative approaches

• Formal mechanisms/ instruments
• The Indus River Treaty
• Tsunami Data Sharing
• Dialogues for basin management
• India-Nepal dialogue on river basin management
• Second track diplomacy through non-governmental
  channels
• Role of third parties and international
  organizations
• Need for a more rational water resource
  management and efficient regional governance
• IWT example

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Thank you