UN Conventions

Rivers know no borders

WWF calls on governments to collaborate on the protection of many of the world's river basins, which cross international borders and sustain millions of people and support vast ecosystems.

The Sepik River in Papua New Guinea and Papua province, Indonesia crosses international boundaries and like many of the world's great rivers, it requires special agreements to ensure its long-term health and survival.
© Brent Stirton/Getty Images / WWF-UK

There are 263 transboundary river basins around the globe, covering half of the earth’s surface, crossing the territories of 145 countries. Such basins are home to 40% of the world’s population and generate around 60% of global freshwater flow.

Transboundary water systems have been regulated under international law by two key agreements adopted under the auspices of the United Nations.

In addition, negotiations for the codification of international groundwater law are underway within the United Nations General Assembly 6th Committee and the International Law Commission.

Effective multinational governance mechanisms would support the sustainable management of places like the Amazon, Mekong, Indus, Sepik, Fly, Amur, Zambezi, and Congo rivers. It would protect river ecosystems and communities dependent upon them and encourage nations to work together to sustainably manage and conserve water resources physically shared among them.

WWF calls on governments to take actions to promote and accelerate:

a) the ratifications for the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UN Convention);

This treaty supports the prevention and peaceful resolution of disputes and contains guidelines for the equitable and reasonable use and management of transboundary river basins. Once in force, the UN Convention would have global reach and codify minimum standards on integrated river basin management in a transboundary context.

b) the drafting process of the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers and Aquifer Systems (ILC Draft Articles) and their adoption as a protocol to the UN Convention;

The world’s governments are called upon to engage in discussions on the shape and content of the latest version of the ILC Draft Articles adopted by the International Law Commission in 2006.

When discussing the shape of the draft articles, states should consider the role of the UN Convention in regulating the use of transboundary water systems and the possibility of adopting the ILC Draft Articles as a protocol to that Convention.

Furthermore, states should consider expanding the scope of the articles to apply to all groundwater systems through which transboundary harm might be caused.

c) the ratifications for the entry into force of the 2003 Amendment to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (ECE Convention).

The 2003 Amendment allows States outside the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) region to become parties to that treaty. The ECE Convention promotes joint management and conservation of freshwater ecosystems within the UNECE region, and the 2003 amendment would extend the benefits of the ECE Convention to Asia and northern Africa.

Many of our great rivers are threatened...

We are living in a world where 54% of the world’s accessible freshwater is diverted for human consumption; a number of major rivers like the Nile barely reach the sea; growing water consumption and climate change threaten to increase water scarcity, and along rivers like the Indus there are already environmental refugees, as a result of the collapse of fishing, salinisation, erosion of delta lands and lack of water to grow crops.

...and we need better international agreements to protect them.

Many of the regional agreements that are in force in particular river basins simply define borders or regulate the joint water resources development; most provide neither for integrated river basin management, nor for adequate ecosystem protection or pollution control.

A lot of agreements also lack appropriate enforcement mechanisms and monitoring provisions.

Where no agreements exist, unilateral action by upstream States can significantly impact human health and livelihoods downstream.

There are good reasons to collaborate.

Without active measures to promote collaboration, growing water scarcity and degradation are likely to increase inter-State conflicts in rivers like the Jordan, Tigris & Euprates, Indus, Ganga & Brahmaputra, Mekong, Nile & Okavango.
International norms regulating the rights and duties of basin and aquifer countries create a legal framework for transboundary cooperation on the management, use, and protection of water resources.
They foster dialogue and global security that are necessary to maintain ecosystems services and facilitate access to sufficient food supplies, to alternatives for sustainable energy production, to safe and affordable water, and to adequate sanitation, in furtherance of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
These actions, if taken by governments, will provide states with minimum legal standards to support coordination and cooperation that is needed for the sustainable, cooperative and equitable management of transboundary river basins.