Introduction to the Research Handbook on International Water Law

Water is an essential and unevenly distributed resource. Although the amount of water on earth has not changed significantly in billions of years, pressures exerted on this essential resource have increased exponentially. With the rapid expansion of the global population and the increasing demands of industry and agriculture, the global competition for water has increased as has its relative scarcity per capita. There are more than 270 international watercourses in the world, with more than 2.8 billion people (roughly 41 per cent of the world’s population) living within transboundary river basins that cover more than 40 per cent of the earth’s total land area.1 The number of transboundary aquifers that have been mapped so far and the people living in the respective recharge areas is even higher. Regional tensions over shared watercourses are likely to increase as the global per-capita share of water decreases, leading countries toward either greater cooperation or greater conflict. Global water resources and their management also face increasing uncertainty caused by global climate change or climate disruption. Where water resources will be found, the predictability of these sources and the demands placed upon them have all become less stable and predictable. This uncertainty makes governing and planning with respect to these resources increasingly difficult. Against this backdrop, governance frameworks that provide for peaceful, stable and predictable management of water resources, while also allowing flexibility to address uncertainty, are of great importance. This book examines the role of international law in providing the frameworks needed for effective water governance. It first traces the evolution of international water (Part I) and provides an overview over its general principles and key obligations (Part II), before exploring the relationships with other areas of law (Parts III and IV). Finally, the book turns to the tested dispute settlement and compliance mechanisms (Part V) and closes with a final section that presents regional water governance frameworks and practice of applying the principles and obligations of international water law to individual basins across the world (Part VI).