un Watercourses Convention in Force2013

"At the UN General Assembly in 1997, an overwhelming majority of states voted for the adoption of the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UN Watercourses Convention) - a global overarching framework governing the rights and duties of states sharing freshwater systems. Globally, there are 276 internationally shared watershed, which drain the territories of 145 countries and represent more than forty percent of the Earth's land surface. Hence, interstate cooperation towards the sustainable management of transboundary waters in accordance with international law is a topic of crucial importance, especially in the context of the current global water crisis. This volume provides an assessment of the role and relevance of the UN Watercourses Convention as a key component of transboundary water governance. To date, the Convention still requires further contracting states before it can enter into force. The authors describe the drafting and negotiation of the Convention and its relationship to other multilateral environmental agreements. A series of case studies assesses the role of the Convention at various levels: regional (West Africa, Central America), river basin (e.g. the Mekong, Amazon, Nile, Aral Sea and Congo) and national (e.g. Ethiopia and El Salvador). The book concludes by proposing how the Convention's future implementation might further strengthen international cooperation in the management, use and protection of shared water resources and their ecosystems"--Unedited summary from book cover.