Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

S H A R I N G W A T E R : D E F I N I N G A C O M M O N I N T E R E S T / 3 0 1international freshwater resources. Actions taken have included thepronouncement of non-binding declarations, the creation of globalwater institutions and the codification of international water lawprinciples. While more work is clearly required, these initiatives notonly have raised awareness of the myriad issues related tointernational water resource management, but also have led to thecreation of frameworks in which the issues can be addressed.Box 12.5: Expanded freshwaterprogrammesOne result of the Rio Conference and Agenda 21 has beenan expansion of international freshwater resourceinstitutions and programs. The World Water Council, a‘think tank’ for world water resource issues was, forexample, created in 1996 in response to recommendationsfrom the Rio Conference. The World Water Councilsponsored the First and Second World Water Forums thatbrought together government, non-government andprivate agency representatives to discuss and collectivelydetermine a vision for the management of water resourcesover the next quarter century. The Council also sponsoredan independent World Water Commission that guided thepreparation of the vision.At the Second Forum there was intensive discussion ofthe World Water Vision, a forward-looking declaration ofphilosophical and institutional water management needs.The Second World Water Forum also served as the venuefor a Ministerial Conference in which the leaders ofparticipating countries signed a declaration concerningwater security in the twenty-first century. GWP, alsoestablished in 1996, has developed regional and nationalpartnerships that facilitate actions ‘on the ground’. TheUnited Nations Millennium Assembly set targets for theprovision of safe drinking water to the world populationand called for improved management of water resources.These recent global water initiatives have, in addition,been supported by a number of interim appraisal meetingsto review actions taken since the Rio Conference and theWorld Summit on Sustainable Development inJohannesburg. The Water Forum in Kyoto in 2003 is themost recent expression of this momentum.Conventions and declarationsThe Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21outlined a set of principles, objectives and a related action plan forimproving the state of the globe’s natural resources in the twentyfirstcentury. Water resources were given specific attention inChapter 18 of Agenda 21, the overall goal of which is to ensurethat the supply and quality of water is sufficient to meet bothhuman and ecological needs worldwide. Measures to implement thisobjective are detailed in the Chapter’s ambitious seven-part actionplan for managing and protecting global freshwater resources.The international community has reinforced its commitment tosatisfy the water quality and quantity requirements of the globalpopulation and its surrounding environment and has identifiedattendant tasks and policy measures needed to fulfil its pledge (seebox 12.5). While many of the strategies in Agenda 21 andsubsequent statements are directed primarily at national waterresources, their relevance extends to transboundary waters. In fact,the Ministerial Declaration at the Second World Water Forumincluded ‘sharing water’ (between different users and states) as oneof its seven major challenges to achieving water security in thetwenty-first century. Many of the other six challenges are alsoapplicable to waters in international settings. In addition, policymeasures prescribed by the international community to build greaterinstitutional capacity, such as the creation of basin-levelorganizations applying the principles of IWRM, expandedstakeholder participation, and improved monitoring and evaluationschemes, are important examples of international water resourcemanagement.None of these statements or declarations, however, focusesexclusively on international freshwater resources. And despite theefforts over the past decade to expand global institutional capacityover freshwater resources, no intergovernmental agency exists tofacilitate management of transboundary resources. Thus, whilemany of the principles of national water management apply to thedomestic component of international waters, the political, social andeconomic dynamics associated with waters shared betweensovereign states require special consideration. National water courtsexist in some countries, although it is difficult to see how thesecould serve as a model for management at an international level. InSpain there exists only one such court, el Tribunal de las Aguas dela Vega de Valencia, which has no overarching laws to guide it butjudges on a case-by-case basis. Italy has a system of statutorywater courts to hear and adjudicate certain water-related disputes.By contrast, the ‘water courts’ of Nordic European countries do notact in a judicial capacity but play the role of governmentalinstitutions dealing with water.