Global Problems, Challenges, Limitations

In 2000, 189 nations made a pledge, otherwise known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), „to free people from extreme poverty and multiple deprivations,“ by 2015⁶. One Target within the MDGs is to „ reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.“⁷ In 2010, the UN Human Rights Council affirmed by consensus that the right to water and sanitation is derived from the right to an adequate standard of living, which is contained in several international human rights treaties, and thus makes it legally binding⁸. Even though the human right to water and the MDG target are not fully synonymous, for simplicity reasons in this report, we assume that by achieving the MDGs, a majority of human rights can be resolved.

 

Currently there is only one convention that codifies international law of water resources (UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, or the UN Watercourse Convention) and the effort in even achieving this was substantial. Almost 30 years after discussions began, it was still uncertain whether or not states could find agreement and adopt a universal convention until the very last deliberations – “seemingly irreconcilable views on the nature and extent of a state’s right to use transboundary water resources that had divided upstream and downstream countries in the past resurfaced during the debate” [Cosgrove, 2003].

 

International treaties are the most important and prevalent source of international legal rights and obligations; they are the primary instruments of cooperation in the field of water resource utilization as well as the most important source of international water law [Cosgrove, 2003]. Though there are more than 3,600 international agreements (bilateral and multilateral) that deal with water-related issues, they lack workable monitoring provisions, enforcement mechanisms, and specific water allocation provisions that address variations in water flow and changing needs.

 

UN Water points out that by consensus among experts, “international watercourse agreements need to be more concrete, setting out measures to enforce treaties made and incorporating detailed conflict resolution mechanisms in case disputes erupt. Better cooperation also entails identifying clear yet flexible water allocations and water quality standards, taking into account hydrological events, changing basin dynamics and societal values.”⁹