Patricia Wouters

Towards integrated catchment management: increasing the dialogue between scientists, policy‐makers and stakeholders

The aim of the Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) project is to strengthen the role and inputs of the scientific community in the integrated catchment management process. Water resources management in the 21st century requires a radical reorientation and an effective dialogue between decision‐makers, stakeholders and the scientific water community. This paper offers a skeleton worldview as a starting point for that dialogue by bringing together key issues as identified by water resource experts from different disciplines. Experiences from all over the world demonstrate the need for multistakeholder advocacy and the importance of compromise‐building mechanisms. Water law defines the rules of the game and provides a necessary framework for policy and its execution. However, there must be adequate social acceptance and active compliance, otherwise the formal rules and administrative regulation will not be perceived as legitimate and ultimately could prove ineffective. The challenge now is to create management systems where the formal decision‐makers interact with relevant members of the scientific community, users and other stakeholders for a coordinated approach that successfully orchestrates water uses towards internal compatibility. Integrated water resources management is essential for securing a proper overview of all the activities that depend on the same resource—the precipitation over the basin—and which are internally linked by the mobility of water from the water divide to the river mouth.

Exploring China's transboundary water treaty practice through the prism of the UN Watercourses Convention

China shares 40 major transboundary watercourses with 16 countries. This paper surveys Chinas transboundary water treaty practice and compares it to the core principles of the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC). Despite a growing watercourse treaty practice stretching back some 60 years, Chinas agreements in this field are relatively unsophisticated. The authors conclude that Chinas transboundary water treaty practice would benefit from some of the guidelines set forth under the UNWC.

The Relevance and Role of Water Law in the Sustainable Development of Freshwater

Abstract Everyone lives downstream—except the water lawyers; they commute from Mars. Repeated statistics forecast imminent global water scarcity with disastrous consequences. International experts promote solutions based on sound economics, science, and enlightened and enhanced political commitment. Absent from the integrated water resources strategy are considerations of fundamental principles of water law—a serious shortcoming. The development and implementation of a comprehensive, forward-looking integrated water resources management scheme must include water law as an integral component. This is especially important in upstream/downstream situations where conflicts of water use are increasingly inevitable.

Enhancing China’s Transboundary Water Cooperation – What Role for the UNECE Water Convention?

to promote actions at all levels, including through international cooperation, as appropriate, aimed at the achievement of the internationally agreed water – related goals contained in Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21, the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, as well as to increase awareness of their importance. Article 4, UN Resolution