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Abstract
This article focuses on the development of international law principles in the area of fresh water, one of the major emerging concerns at the global level. These principles, from the period of abundance to scarcity of fresh water, are evaluated parallel to changing economic, geopolitical and environmental conditions of world politics. Currently over a billion people in the Third World do not have access to safe drinking water. Is current international law capable of addressing the challenge of global water scarcity in 21st century? I will evaluate the moral principles of international human rights, and economic principles of free market ideology to solve the problem of access to fresh water resources for all for the future.
Notes
1 For a historical and comparative approach to water law principles, see Hilal Elver, Peaceful Uses of International Rivers: The Euphrates and Tigris Rivers Basin, Ardsley NY: Transnational Publishers, 2002, pp 19 – 52.
2 James L Westcoat, Jr, ‘Main currents in multilateral water treaties: a historical – geographic perspective, 1648 – 1958’, Colorado Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, 7 (39), 1996, p 12.
3 Freedom of navigation on the Congo River, for example, was agreed upon at the Congress of Berlin in 1885.
4 James L Wescoat, Jr, ‘Main currents in early multilateral water treaties: a historical – geographic perspective, 1648 – 1958’, Colorado Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, 7 (39), 1996, p 12.
5 Ibid, p 20.
6 See William Willcocks, The Restoration of the Ancient Irrigation Works on the Tigris, or the Recreation of Chaldea, 1903; and Lectures on the Ancient System of Irrigation in Bengal and its Application to Modern Problems, 1930, both cited in ibid, p 31.
7 See, for example, Edward Said, Orientalism, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.
8 The only main exception occurred in 1931 in relation to China. The Yangtze River flooded catastrophically, killing some 140 000 people in one of the worst river disasters of modern history. A combination of political, economic and humanitarian considerations in Europe led the League to send large-scale help to China in the form of disease control and food and, more importantly, assistance in the establishment of water conservancy programme. This undertaking was the most substantial League attempt to respond to a challenge that was related to the management of water resources.
9 Lucius Caflisch, ‘Regulation of the uses of international watercourses’, in Salman MA Salman & Laurence Boisson de Charzournes (eds), International Watercourses: Enhancing Cooperation and Managing Conflict, Washington, DC: World Bank, 1998, p 7.
10 Among 261 international river basins, 148 are shared by two countries, 30 by three, nine by four, and 13 by five or more countries.
11 The Nile Rivers Basin, Jordan River Basin, Euphrates and Tigris Rivers Basins are the major sites of water conflict among riparian countries.
12 In a comprehensive study on this issue, a table of international agreements containing substantive provisions concerning pollution of international watercourses in this period indicates that 81 of the 88 treaties are among European and North American countries. JG Lammers, Pollution on International Watercourses, Boston: Kluwer Law International, 1984.
13 For the older agreements, see fao Legislative Study, No 15, Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1978. For newer and universal legislative studies, see Sources of International Water Law: fao Legislative Study, Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1997.
14 David Hunter, James Salzman & Durwood Zaelke, International Environmental Law and Policy, New York: Foundation Press, 1998, p 810.
15 UN Doc A/51/869, Apr 11,1997 36 ILM 700 (1997).
16 For detailed information on the UN Convention see Elver, Peaceful Uses of International Rivers, pp 161 – 222.
18 John Tagliabue, ‘Running dry’, New York Times, 26 August 2002, p A1.
19 Public Citizens, at www.citizens.org/cmep/Water/, accessed 7 September 2002.
21 icsid, created in 1966, is a mechanism of the World Bank that provides conciliation and arbitration in disputes between countries and investors who are World Bank members.
22 Earth Justice press release, at http://www.earthjustice.org/news/, accessed 1 September 2002.
23 ‘Bechtel versus Bolivia: the Democracy Center’, at http://www.democracyctr.org, accessed 1 March 2006.
24 Nevertheless, the borderless world of telecommunications technology is seen as a threat by some governments. China, for instance, has attempted to develop an internet system that controls domestic access and monitors incoming material. Most experts believe that such a system of regulation cannot work, as access to information is in the end impossible to control.
25 Public Water for All: The Role of Public – Public Partnership, report prepared by a working group of Reclaiming Public Water, at http://waterjustice.org/ and http://www.tni.org/.
26 John Vidal, ‘Clean water is a human right’, Guardian Weekly, 24 – 30 March 2006, p 28.
27 Ibid.