Environmental Change and Security Project Report - Woodrow ...

The water sector is
plagued by weak
institutions, which
often lack democracy,
political will,
trained human
capacity, and sufficient
financial support.
102
important components of water-related peace
and conflict assessments.
The final three chapters of Water Security
and Peace provide a rather unorganized collection
of lessons learned and recommendations.
While they include some important points—
for example, implementing transboundary
cooperation requires coherent national water
policies—the chapters awkwardly jump from
one issue to the next, making for a difficult
read. They do, however, reiterate the collection’s
main point: institutions are critical.
But what do effective institutions look alike?
The third volume in the PCCP series, Institutions
for International Freshwater Management, systematically
describes 19 institutions managing international
river basins, lakes, and aquifers (Burchi
& Spreij, 2003). Although it provides a valuable
overview of different institutional designs, it does
not draw any conclusions about the actual functioning
of these institutions, as it is based mainly
on treaties, conventions, and agreements, and
therefore has very little information on whether
the institutions have enough funds, human
resources, and technical capacity to be effective.
Recognizing these limitations, Eric Mostert’s
well-structured desk study Conflict and Co-operation
in the Management of International
Freshwater Resources: A Global Review (2003)
examines 23 international freshwater resources
and concludes that “well-designed institutions
deliver positive effects” and intergovernmental
commissions can promote cooperation. His list of
54 lessons includes recommendations for effective
institutional design and appropriate negotiation
processes. He acknowledges that some of
these lessons lack supporting case study evidence
and recommends that further research examine
the effectiveness of individual institutions.
I hoped that the PCCP case studies would
provide this empirical evidence, but unfortunately,
each focuses on a different aspect of
cooperation, thus preventing cross-basin comparisons.
The PCCP series could have contributed
greatly to the field if it had used a common
organizing principle like Mostert’s theoretical
framework for the case studies (interestingly,
Mostert uses only two of the PCCP case
studies—the Rhine and the Aral Sea—to draw
his conclusions). Another quibble: although it
does include a few familiar basins like the
Incomati, the series mostly covers the usual suspects,
such as the often-studied Rhine, Jordan,
Nile, Danube, Aral Sea, and Mekong basins.
The entire series could have offered more
insights into “the intricate and interdependent
links between water, security, and peace,” as
stated in a PCCP brochure (UNESCO &
GCI, 2003, page 15), if it were better organized.
A more clearly arranged table of contents,
for example, would have made it easier to
understand the topics covered in each volume.
Due to these shortcomings, I believe the PCCP
series ultimately fails to fully achieve its noble
objective: to provide people from different disciplines
with a concise collection of background
information, lessons learned, and tools
to understand and enhance transboundary
water cooperation.
Notes
1. See http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/
pccp/index.shtml for more information.
2. See http://webworld.unesco.org/water/wwap/
pccp/cd/case_studies.html to download the PCCP and
the Green Cross International case studies.
3. Clingendael is the Netherlands Institute of
International Relations; see http://www.clingendael.nl/
for more information.
4. The FEWER network, now defunct, was an
independent global network of organizations committed
to preventing conflict by providing early warning.
References
Burchi, Stefano & Spreij, Melvin (2003). Institutions
for international freshwater management (PCCP
Series No. 3). Paris: UNESCO.
Hassan, Fekri A. (2003). “Water management and
early civilizations: From cooperation to conflict.” In
F.A. Hassan, Martin Reuss, Julie Trottier, Christoph
Bernhardt, Aaron T. Wolf, Jennifer Mohamed-
Katerere, & Pieter van der Zaag (Eds.), History and
future of shared water resources (PCCP Series No. 6).
Paris: UNESCO.
Mostert, Eric. (2003). Conflict and cooperation in the
management of international freshwater resources: A
global review (PCCP Series No. 19). Paris:
ECSP REPORT • ISSUE 10 • 2004