Friday, July 4, 2014

International River Basins

The UN Watercourses Convention User's Guide (2012) contains maps of all the international river basins in the world. These show where transboundary agreements exist and where they are yet to be made. Most of the information comes from Oregon State (2009).
What we really need is a global organization focused on data management, monitoring the status of international agreements on for instance river basins, but also flood occurrences and other disasters would be a welcome addition. We have several UN organizations that might be suited for this task; and choosing one sole entity may be tricky.
Another interesting point of the user guide is that three countries voted against the convention in 1997: Burundi, China and Turkey. While Turkey had clear reservations against the ambiguous descriptions of equitable and reasonable use, what constitutes no harm, and how to settle international disputes while guaranteeing sovereignty; it was not clear why the other two countries voted against the convention.







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