Free Flow

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egal

ramework

the

ational

nternational

evel

ment is that between India and Pakistan over the water

resources of the Indus River basin. Prompted by an

elaborate water-division treaty concluded in 1960, coop-

eration has since survived the frequent political tensions

between the two countries. It has yielded irrigation and

power benefits to vast segments of the populations inhab-

iting the river basin on both sides of the border. The

resilience of the 1960 treaty has been attributed to its

being extremely well crafted, and to its recognizing the

countries’ limitations and ring-fencing each country’s

access to the basin’s water resources.

Mali, Mauritania and Senegal provide a further

example of successful cross-border collaboration.

The countries cooperated in developing the water and

power potential of the Senegal River in West Africa,

and in the management of water and power resources

harnessed by the construction of the Manantali and

Diama dams in the 1980s. This has delivered enor-

mous benefits in terms of dependable river water flows

for irrigation, power generation, enhanced river navi-

gability and flood control for the three cooperating

countries, and especially for the river basin popula-

tions living across the borders. All of these benefits

have been made possible by an interlocking and

pioneering web of inter-state agreements among the

three Senegal river basin countries spanning some

30 years, from the signing of the Convention on the

Statute of the Senegal River in 1972 to the adoption of

the Senegal Waters Charter in 2002.

ties to participate in water resource management. Thanks to these

laws, people can bring an action in the domestic law courts for any

breach of legislative rights. Public interest litigation is one of the legal

mechanisms that allow individuals and groups to ‘vindicate the public

interest’ and seek redress for injury suffered at the hands of public

authorities or companies. Examples of this kind of litigation can be

found in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where poorer sections of the

community are enabled to access the courts. In India, for example,

the Supreme Court has heard complaints about water pollution,

encroachment of the riverbed, mining and water management. One

such case resulted in the Coca Cola company being forced to relocate

its business from the state of Kerala, after a long legal battle disput-

ing the company’s groundwater pumping stations at its bottling site.

The Genevese aquifer, straddling the border between France and

Switzerland, is a good example of successful cross-border cooperation

in managing the water resources of transboundary rivers, lakes or

aquifers. Two formal agreements were negotiated in 1978 and 2008

respectively, enabling intense cross-border cooperation between local

communities sitting above the aquifer. As a result, the communities

concerned have paid for a successful artificial recharge programme for

the aquifer and implemented an effective programme of groundwater

withdrawal controls with intense monitoring on both sides of the

border. This has enabled a stable supply of drinking-quality water to

Geneva and the surrounding communities. The success of this cross-

border cooperation is acknowledged to have been facilitated by the

latitude of formal legal engagement by the local communities across

the border, enabled by the international legal arrangements in place.

Another useful example of lasting cross-border cooperation in a

radically different sociopolitical, cultural and economic environ-

Domestic and transboundary water laws are enabling local communities to benefit from sustainable groundwater withdrawals

Image: Int. Assoc. for Water Law