Publication: Promoting Development in Shared River Basins: Case Studies from International Experience
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2018-03
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2018-03-09
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Transboundary freshwater systems create inevitable linkages and interdependencies between countries. The use of shared water resources by one country will, in most cases, impact other countries sharing the same system. At the same time, coordination among countries in the development of transboundary basins can yield greater benefits than would be available to individual countries pursuing individual development. UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 Target 5 recognizes this potential, calling on the world community to implement integrated water resources management at all levels, ‘including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate’. With a growing number of basins in which water use and demand permanently or temporarily exceeds the amount of renewable water available, and uncertainty from climate change, SDG Target 6.5 becomes increasingly relevant to development interventions designed to secure availability of supplies and create resilience. This is a companion document to the study "Promoting Development in Shared River Basins: Tools for Enhancing Transboundary Basin Management," which aims to contribute to relevant knowledge for achieving SDG Target 6.5. It presents six case studies from international experience on coordinated management in transboundary basins: Kura-Araks Basin; Columbia Basin; Chu and Talas Basins; Vuoksi Basin; Douro Basin; and Rhône Basin. The case studies demonstrate real-world application of selecting appropriate tools for individual transboundary situations along a three-stage process of coordinated basin development, which is detailed in the main study.
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“Altingoz, Mehmet; Belinskij, Antti; Bréthaut, Christian; do Ó, Afonso; Gevinian, Suren; Hearns, Glen; Keskinen, Marko; McCracken, Melissa; Ni, Vadim; Solninen, Niko; Wolf, Aaron T.. 2018. Promoting Development in Shared River Basins: Case Studies from International Experience. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29449 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Promoting Development in Shared River Basins(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-15)Transboundary freshwater systems create inevitable linkages and interdependencies between countries. The use of shared water resources by one country will, in most cases, impact other countries sharing the same system. At the same time, coordination among countries in the development of transboundary basins can yield greater benefits than would be available to individual countries pursuing individual development. UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 Target 5 recognizes this potential, calling on the world community to implement integrated water resources management at all levels, “including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate.” With a growing number of basins in which water use and demand permanently or temporarily exceeds the amount of renewable water available, and uncertainty from climate change, SDG Target 6.5 becomes increasingly relevant to development interventions designed to secure availability of supplies and create resilience. This study aims to contribute to relevant knowledge for achieving SDG Target 6.5. It identifies an array of tools derived from the international experience that can be used by countries and development partners—distinguishing between tools available to each—in their efforts to develop more water secure economies and societies through harnessing the shared freshwater resources of transboundary basins, while also preventing or mitigating transboundary harm that may otherwise result. The study guides the reader through a three-stage process for choosing the most appropriate tools for the development and management of transboundary freshwater resources.Publication Mapping the Resilience of International River Basins to Future Climate Change-Induced Water Variability, Volume 1. Main Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-03)The study presented in this report aims to increase our understanding of the global distribution of treaty and River Basin Organization (RBO) mechanisms that may confer resilience to variability in the hydrological regime and how that distribution aligns with current and anticipated regimes. Some basins will experience greater changes in hydrologic variability regimes than others, and we specifically seek to identify country-basin combinations with greater exposure to variability and few or no treaty/RBO provisions to manage the transboundary impacts of that variability. To do this, we assessed all available international water treaties for specific treaty mechanisms, mapped the spatial distribution of these mechanisms and RBOs, and compared it to both the current variability regime and projections of future variability regimes driven by climate change. We then identified specific basins that may merit further study in light of their potential risk of future hydropolitical stress. By identifying these areas at the global scale, we can contribute to efforts aimed at anticipating future challenges in transboundary water management and suggesting specific measures to adapt existing or new water agreements to the effects of climate change.Publication Mapping the Resilience of International River Basins to Future Climate Change-Induced Water Variability, Volume 2. Appendices(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-05)The study presented in this report aims to increase our understanding of the global distribution of treaty and River Basin Organization (RBO) mechanisms that may confer resilience to variability in the hydrological regime and how that distribution aligns with current and anticipated regimes. 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The state has created its own Water Resources Management Company (COGERH) which is responsible for water resources management throughout the state. Decentralization from state to local level has been more partial. Although COGERH has decentralized the allocation of strategic reservoir waters to local institutions, many traditional water management attributions continue under its and the state's purview, such as water permits, bulk water pricing, planning, operation and maintenance of hydraulic infrastructure, groundwater management, and control. The creation of sub-basin committees and user commissions has increased stakeholder participation of all types. Although so far stakeholder involvement has been limited largely to the negotiated allocation of water and to conflict resolution, these experiences represent a radical transformation in management practices, transforming water users from uninformed takers of water management decisions to informed and aware participants in the management process. That said, local stakeholders still have no say in some decisionmaking processes that affect them directly, such as bulk water pricing or inter-basin transfers to Greater Fortaleza, which continue solely under the control of state government agencies. 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