McIntyre, Owen --- "Water" [2016] ELECD 1346; in Morgera, Elisa; Kulovesi, Kati (eds), "Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 305

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources

Editor(s): Morgera, Elisa; Kulovesi, Kati

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783478323

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: Water

Author(s): McIntyre, Owen

Number of pages: 22

Abstract/Description:

Few people would now deny that reliable access to adequate fresh water supplies has become a pressing global problem. Estimates suggest that by 2030 global water requirements will nearly double those in 2005 and will exceed current reliable supply levels by 40 per cent. The resulting water stress that many States will suffer will alter established patterns of agricultural production, adversely affect natural ecosystems and the services they provide, and generally impact livelihoods and living standards. As the fresh water crisis has come to be recognized as ‘the new environmental crisis of the twenty-first century’, the perception of water as a valuable natural resource has at last taken hold among policy-makers. Of course, this is equally true of transboundary water resources, where competition between co-basin States for the right to use shared waters has intensified. Thus, the role of international water law in promoting equitable transboundary water resources management and effective hydro-diplomacy becomes ever more critical. As a discrete body of rules and principles, international water law is a relative newcomer. However, States have long engaged in formal cooperative arrangements over the use of shared international rivers and lakes. This is evidenced by the fact that an agreement on the utilization of shared water resources provides us with the oldest known example of an international treaty, while the Rhine Commission provides the first example of a permanently constituted international (intergovernmental) organization.