UNESCO's Involvement in Solving Conflicts about Transboundary Waters

1. Transboundary Waters Sharing Regional Case Studies J. de Schutter, Rotterdam, October 2009

2. ÌHE has existed since 1957. UNESCO-IHE is now a UNESCO Category 1 Institute since 2003. It belongs to the Science Division, Natural Science Sector. It is the UNESCO focal point for water together with the International Hydrology Program and World Water Assessment Program. Within the UNESCO organization the Institute is responsible for tertiary water education. www.unesco-ihe.org UNESCO-IHE X

3. Major River Basins of the World There are an estimated 263 international river basins covering 45.3% of the land surface area of the earth, excluding Antarctica. A basin is defined as the land area (watershed) where all surface water drains to a certain river.

13. Combined and balanced basin wide socio-economic efficiency and regional stability should be at the basis of any decision framework for changed water use policies in a river basin. Under certain conditions, where consensus on decision criteria is difficult to achieve using the concept of Pareto efficiency (situations in which any change to make any person better off is impossible without making someone else worse off) and other optimization techniques may help. The main cause for conflict is the hydropower <> irrigation conflict. Expansion of upstream hydropower efficiency is qualitatively a most attractive policy, but only within a country and provided that the hydropower production function is ‘sufficiently steep’. If not the second-best policy is to expand downstream reservoir capacity. An intervention in an upstream state would normally include a policy conditionality that prevents unilateral expansion of upstream reservoir capacity without consultation downstream water users. Why: the main scenario triggers are population growth and climate change, which cause water scarcity Towards Integrated River Basin Management

14. Case Study Middle East (Third Party Involvement) Israeli Core Party Jordanian Core Party Water scarcity is a major issue in the Middle East. The Executive Action Team (EXACT) on the basis of recommendations of the Middle-East Multilateral Working Group on Water Resources (WWG) is coordinating special assistance programs to the Middle East Region. The WWG one out of five that have been established to promote regional co-operation among its three Core Parties: Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. Five Donor Parties support the WWG: the European Union, the United States, Canada, France and the Netherlands. One of the recommendations of this WWG has been to establish regional water data banks to improve the joint monitoring, data availability and information exchange among water managers of the three Core Parties in the Middle East (EU Funded). Palestinian Core Party

15. The Water Data Banks IV Project One key to an approach to deal with trans-boundary water management problems of the Middle East is in the combined / shared use of a science based research framework and a thoroughly designed communication, planning and implementation process The WDB IV project aims to enable proper assessment of the state of the region’s water resources through development of accurate and up-to-date data banks for hydro-meteorological, hydrological, hydro-geological and water quality data, which are mutually comparable and exchangeable. A key component is to develop a new Palestinian hydrometric data base facility, and to upgrade and strengthen the Israeli and Jordanian existing water data programmes, as well as introducing internationally recognised minimum quality standards for all. Implementation focus is on: training for water managers and field technicians; communication and information; network review and evaluation; field data collection; laboratory analysis; data bank enhancement; quality assurance and control. Shared assessment > Shared monitoring > Shared use idea

16. Water Data Banks IV The watersheds of the WDB IV project area: The water market is heavily under stress and demand is exceeding supply. Both surface water and groundwater are 100% used. One answer is “treated waste water re-use” especially for agriculture. This is already underway on a large scale in Israel, on the West Bank and in Jordan (Jordan Valley). The WDB IV project is required to produce a model and DSS that will allow to optimize the balance of ME water resources supply and demand (all sources) in a planning zone Jordan Yarmouk

17. ME Water Scarcity is the Main Trigger Source: Israeli Water Commission

18. Source: MWI Jordan 2002 New Water Policies in the Middle East

19. A common planning concept for water use in WDB IV

21. Water Data Banks IV Decision Model

22. Water Data Banks IV DSS Steps

24. WDB IV DSS Interface Use

25. WDB IV DSS Output Examples The DSS allows to analyze various water allocation (quality, quantity) options and optimize (e.g. minimize deficits) between them. The planning options are shared with users and decision makers

27. Central Asia Water Scenario’s (2003) Source: NATO SfP 974357 , 2003 Actual (2009) consumptive water withdrawal in Central Asian countries varies from 20% of available water resources (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) to 80-90% (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan).

32. Central Asia ASBmm The central tool developed in support of planning and decision making for trans-boundary water management is de Aral Sea Basin Management Model (ASB mm). This is a combination of a hydrological model and socio-economic model which was developed in two versions Expert version with extended access to databases and scenario information Popular version with an information and communication function mainly

33. Central Asia ASBmm

34. Central Asia ASBmm

35. Central Asia ASBmm Process Step 1 intro

36. Central Asia ASBmm Process Step 2 1. analyse 4. Run calculation 2. Select scenario 3. change parameters (= measures) 5. check calculation results 6. Base criteria shown in color

38. Central Asia ASBmm Process Step 3b Graphical presentation of results Water scarcity indices

40. Trans-boundary Watersharing Summary Potential conflict areas for scarce 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 countries ) and not by negotiation and consensus Water resources sharing requires 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 Decision support systems based on joint monitoring data, shared databases and agreed indicators are powerful tools in IRBM The Netherlands, 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