Hydropolitics

Question 1

What are water resources assumed to be?

Answer 1

The river runoff formed in the territory of a given region plus half the river inflow from the outside

Question 2

How much of the world lives in river basins whose water is desired by more than 1 country?

Answer 2

49%

Question 3

What are rights to water called?

Answer 3

Riparian law

Question 4

What are claims to water based on?

Answer 4

Hydrography (the proportion of a resource that falls within a states territory) and chronology (how long a state has been using the resource)

Question 5

Why are conflicts over water inherently asymmetrical?

Answer 5

The upstream riparian controls the quality and quantity of flow

Question 6

Define territorial sovereignty

Answer 6

A state has absolute rights to water flowing through its territory

Question 7

Define riverine integrity

Answer 7

Every riparian is entitled to the natural flow of a river system crossing its borders

Question 8

Who would claim what over the Mekong?

Answer 8

China: territorial sovereignty
Cambodia: riverine integrity

Question 9

What are the Helsinki rules (1966)

Answer 9

Shares of the resources should be governed by:

• a states contribution to the drainage basin
• climatic factors
• prior use
• economic and social needs
• population
• costs of meeting needs by alternate means
• availability of other resources
• avoidance of waste and damage downstream

Question 10

What does the UN law on international water courses?

Answer 10

States bordering international watercourses can utilise the resource in an equitable and reasonable manner in order to achieve optimal and sustainable utilisation that does not lead to any of the other riparian states suffering significant harm

Question 11

What are the limitations of the UN international watercourse law?

Answer 11

• legally ambiguous terms
• absence of any supranational enforcement
• often agreements are based on water needs rather than rights to water

Question 12

Why are agreements based on needs rather than rights?

Answer 12

• there is no criteria for allocating ‘rights’

- needs are quantifiable, rights are not

Question 13

What could complicate this needs-based agreements system

Answer 13

Projected water scarcity, due to population growth, climate change and economic growth

Question 14

What argument does barnaby (2009) give to prove nations do not go to war over water?

Answer 14

• countries tend to solve water shortages through trade and international agreements instead
• war often caused inequitable access to water rather than the other way around

Question 15

How did the myths of water wars enter popular discourse?

Answer 15

World bank Vice President 1995:

“The wars in this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water”

Question 16

What is the water deal in Israel and Palestine?

Answer 16

They continue to interact in a Joint Water Committee established in 1995. The war is not a war over water

Question 17

What is further proof that nations do not go to war over water?

Answer 17

1948-1999

There were no formal declarations of war over water

Question 18

What could be one factor to explain the lack of wars over water?

Answer 18

Virtual water

Question 19

What does wolf (1999) say about the criteria for equitable water allocations?

Answer 19

They are vague and often contradictory

Question 20

What is the issue with a generalised code of conduct?

Answer 20

Can one generalise a code of conduct for watersheds which are by nature hydrologically, politically, and culturally unique? No

Question 21

As watersheds are unique, what is the best way to manage transboundary basins?

Answer 21

Shift the emphasis from defining generalised principles to encouraging treaty negotiations for each individual international basin