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LEGAL FRAMEWORK AT THE NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL LEVELImage: G. GoochA girl fetching water in the Vendha, South Africa. Shared resources provide water for almost half the global populationTransboundary Watercourses and International Lakes which, after20 years of successful implementation at a regional level, will soon beopen for all United Nations member states to join. Both these frameworkinstruments, as well as the United Nations General Assembly’sResolution on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers, provide an importantbasis by which to enhance the legitimacy of international waterlaw and strengthen the political will to enter into agreements at thebasin level. Ultimately, the effectiveness of any transboundary watergovernance arrangement will depend on there being a shared understandingabout who gets what water, when and why.Hydrological impacts of land use, especially degraded lands, andthe implications therein regarding appropriate land-water managementpolicies is also an important issue. For example, the water useof fast-growing tree plantations tends to be much higher than that ofthe degraded vegetation they typically replace – particularly wheretree roots have access to groundwater. Aside from these hydrologicalconsiderations – and in contrast to, for example, forest plantationmonocultures in developed countries – forest land in developingcountries also has to provide a variety of goods andservices (such as timber and fuel wood plus non-timberproducts including water, fodder and litter for animalbedding) to local communities in support of theirsubsistence farming systems. Consequently, access toland of this kind by these local communities is mandatoryand such incursions have potential hydrologicalimpacts which are presently less well known. This is anadditional dimension to an already complex process ofcommunity management embedded within integratedcatchment management. It will pose a considerable challengeto both local communities and the government infine-tuning water management policy.Increasingly, non-governmental participatorycatchment organizations are being seen as key to theeffective delivery of both national water legislation andthe desires of local communities for a better qualityof life. This is true in the UK where, as with other[ 174 ]