A. Introduction to the Different Terms of Transboundary Water Resources
The topic of this particular blog entry is to discuss the impact of climate change on transboundary water resources (TWR) and the potential and possibilities which lie within the term. The post itself is thereby based on the foregone entries, thus please keep in mind the demonstrated problems in water supply as well as the distribution of water use on the African continent.
Transboundary water resources
To start this post off, an introduction to transboundary water resources and the terms associated with it comes in useful. Therefore, a brief description of transboundary water resources themselves. The term has to be considered as the hypernym of every water resource that is shared by two or more countries and serves the affected people as their water source, either a direct (take water directly out of their water source) or indirect one (well that is based on groundwater which is fed by the water resource such as a river, lake etc.). What might start to shine through here is the problem of who is allowed to withdrawal how much from the water resource, based on its transboundary nature. For example, the cultivated agricultural fields close to the Nile are irrigated with a huge amount of water, thus yield profit and hence have an immense economical value (see blog post #3). But who regulates how much water they are allowed to use? And does this huge water resource help societies with water scarcity on the African continent? Gripping questions, that will be discussed in chapter B.
Transboundary river basins
An estimated 90% of Africa's land surface is covered by so called river and lake basins, whereof 62% of these water resources on the African continent can be considered as international river basins (Goulden et al., 2009). At least two or more countries are concerned with such a water resource, thus the description as transboundary. A water basin itself is a surface freshwater resource or a natural reservoir, rivers as well as lakes fall by definition into that category. In this particular case, the emphasis will be put on rivers only. For example, the Nile is shared by eight or even more countries, as well as other comprehensive rivers like the Niger, Congo etc. (Goulden et al., 2009).
Transboundary aquifer systems
An aquifer is a body of groundwater at the subsurface level of rock or unconsolidated materials. It serves as a water source since groundwater can be extracted from it by using a well. There are two terms associated with an aquifer, aquitard and aquiclude. The latter is a layer of very solid and impermeable material, whereas aquitard is the contrary, namely a layer of permeable and fragile material. These futher explanations are now required to understand the meaning of an aquifer system. There are two aquifer systems existing, a confined and an unconfined one. Such a system could consist of two aquifers and one aquiclude, thus separating these groundwater storages. A transboundary aquifer systems now is shared by two or more countries. The obvious problem is thereby the allocated share of such a water resource and the upcoming question which country may withdrawal how much water from it. For example, a large amount of people in East Africa rely on such water resources, therefore frequent conflict is a regular event (Abiye, 2010). To give a brief overview of the spread of transboundary aquifer systems, there is an estimated amount of 40 to 70 in Africa which cover above 40% of the continent's surface (Goulden et al., 2009).
Transboundary water management (TWM)
First of all, transboundary water management takes on an essential role especially in Africa. Nine of the ten the most active actors comprising TWMs are located in Africa (Kim & Glaumann, 2012). Kim & Glaumann (2012) further state, that the most attention is thereby drawn to transboundary rivers, whilst other types of transboundary water resources such as aquifers etc. receive little attention. The authors furthermore give examples of the three most imporant basins, which are the Mekong, the Volta and the Nile. The latter will be further discussed in chapter B. There are three goals of TWM, according to Kim & Glaumann (2012): Firstly, the maximum utilisation of the common good; secondly, the conflict prevention between parties; thirdly, providing an ecological sustainability. To delve further into that topic, TWM shall be scrutinised by examining the example of the Nile in chapter B.
B. Transboundary Water Management with Reference to the Example of the Nile
The Nile with its catchment area of of more than 3 million km2 is a river with an immense extent, thereby providing water for many people and populations. The problem is, as brought up earlier, who is allowed to withdrawal how much water from the Nile? The discussion is exacerbated by the fact that this river is a transboundary water resource shared by ten countries. Since these countries discovered that it is crucial to use this resource, which serves more than 230 mill. people as their main water source, very wisely on a transboundary basis (Grossman, 2014), they therefore founded the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) in 1999. Its aim is “to achieve sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources.” (Grossman 2014, p. 5). A project that has been launched in 2010 by the NBI with the title "Adapting to climate change induced water stress in the Nile River Basin", for example.
According to Goulden et al. (2009), the impact of climate change requires adaption to the same in river basins. The following paragraph aims to scrutinise the actions which take place in terms of the Nile based on Goulden et al. their statements on how to adapt to climate change in river basins. Firstly, a serious factor, that has been discussed in the blog post 'Introduction to Climate Change' in this very blog, is uncertainty. Since there is no profound knowledge of what the impact of this natural phenomenon is going to be, a precise prediction of the upcoming challenges is hard to make, thus one can only venture a prognosis. The mentioned project, "Adapting to climate change induced water stress in the Nile River Basin", aims to build resilience for the ecosystems and economies hosted by the Nile. This approach shall be realised by building adaptive capacity and adaption itself, based on financial, technical and policy interventions (UNEP, 2012). As Goulden et al. (2009) suggest, an auspicious approach to reacting to the climate change is to analyse the different sources of uncertainty, based on various climate and impact models. According to UNEP (2012), they pursue a very similar approach of planning. Inception meetings regarding that issue have taken place in 2012 as well as other measures have been adopted in that regard.
Secondly, money is obviously an issue. The adaptive capacity is more or less determined by the financial resources, thus basins with weaker means are less likely to be able to adapt to upcoming challenges. The emerging question here is if that is going to lead to an aggravation of the issues of the distribution of water and the issue that is going to be addresses in the following:
Thirdly, there still is the confusion of who is allowed to use the water resource to which extent. Which of the ten countries is supposed may withdrawal the most water from the Nile, which the the fewest of all? Populations claim to have to right to use the resource based on their hydrography, i.e. what are the proportions of the river basin within a country's territory. Another claim is based on the chronology, meaning for how long has a country been using that particular river basin. The issue regarding the water rights has to be addressed by upcoming treaties or the like. Whilst delving further into the subject, I found a huge debate which unfortunately would go beyond the constraints of this blog post. The impression of that issue shall remain and also mark the conclusion of chapter B. The following and concluding chapter is supposed to discuss the TWR potential.
C. The Potential of Transboundary Water Resources regarding the Climate Change
Since the challenges that Africa is going to face in the future have been discussed, the emphasis is put on the possible benefits of TWR in the following. At first, it has to be abundantly clear that the role of such resources is poorly understood regarding their key role they are going to play in the future (Goulden et al., 2009). The key factor for a successful adaption to the changing conditions is going to be cooperation. Every river basin is unique and different, and so are the states using the resource. The authors futher state, cooperation includes multiple benefits that would take every participating state further. Through a cooperative alliance, a share of knowledge, measures and projects is possible, thus enhancing the adaption to the climate change. Fortunately, cooperation is one of the key points of the NBI.
In my opinion, a functioning and flexible alliance would form a great force to address water scarcity issues. If the same would be functioning, there would be possibilities of helping countries and populations which suffer from a lack of water by providing overage water storages to them. This notion might not appear very likely, but its powerful potential should encourage one to give it at least second thought.
References
Goulden, M., Conway, D., Persechino, A., 2009, Adaption to climate change in international river basins, Hydrological Sciences, 54, 5, pp. 805-823.
Grossman, M., 2014, Transboundary Water Management, Support to cooperation on shared waters, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, pp. 5-6.
Abiye, T.A., 2010, An overview of the transboundary aquifers in East Africa, Journal of African Earth Sciences, 58, 4, pp. 805-823.
Kim, K., Glaumann, K., 2012, Transboundary Water Management, Who Does What, Where?, Swedish Water House, xy, x, pp.xx-xx.
United Nations Environment Programme, 2012, Adapting to climate change induced water stress in the Nile River Basin, United Nations Environment Programme, http://www.unep.org/climatechange/adaptation/EbA/NileRiverBasin/tabid/29584/Default.aspx.
A. Introduction to the Different Terms of Transboundary Water Resources
The topic of this particular blog entry is to discuss the impact of climate change on transboundary water resources (TWR) and the potential and possibilities which lie within the term. The post itself is thereby based on the foregone entries, thus please keep in mind the demonstrated problems in water supply as well as the distribution of water use on the African continent.
Transboundary water resources
To start this post off, an introduction to transboundary water resources and the terms associated with it comes in useful. Therefore, a brief description of transboundary water resources themselves. The term has to be considered as the hypernym of every water resource that is shared by two or more countries and serves the affected people as their water source, either a direct (take water directly out of their water source) or indirect one (well that is based on groundwater which is fed by the water resource such as a river, lake etc.). What might start to shine through here is the problem of who is allowed to withdrawal how much from the water resource, based on its transboundary nature. For example, the cultivated agricultural fields close to the Nile are irrigated with a huge amount of water, thus yield profit and hence have an immense economical value (see blog post #3). But who regulates how much water they are allowed to use? And does this huge water resource help societies with water scarcity on the African continent? Gripping questions, that will be discussed in chapter B.
Transboundary river basins
An estimated 90% of Africa's land surface is covered by so called river and lake basins, whereof 62% of these water resources on the African continent can be considered as international river basins (Goulden et al., 2009). At least two or more countries are concerned with such a water resource, thus the description as transboundary. A water basin itself is a surface freshwater resource or a natural reservoir, rivers as well as lakes fall by definition into that category. In this particular case, the emphasis will be put on rivers only. For example, the Nile is shared by eight or even more countries, as well as other comprehensive rivers like the Niger, Congo etc. (Goulden et al., 2009).
Transboundary aquifer systems
An aquifer is a body of groundwater at the subsurface level of rock or unconsolidated materials. It serves as a water source since groundwater can be extracted from it by using a well. There are two terms associated with an aquifer, aquitard and aquiclude. The latter is a layer of very solid and impermeable material, whereas aquitard is the contrary, namely a layer of permeable and fragile material. These futher explanations are now required to understand the meaning of an aquifer system. There are two aquifer systems existing, a confined and an unconfined one. Such a system could consist of two aquifers and one aquiclude, thus separating these groundwater storages. A transboundary aquifer systems now is shared by two or more countries. The obvious problem is thereby the allocated share of such a water resource and the upcoming question which country may withdrawal how much water from it. For example, a large amount of people in East Africa rely on such water resources, therefore frequent conflict is a regular event (Abiye, 2010). To give a brief overview of the spread of transboundary aquifer systems, there is an estimated amount of 40 to 70 in Africa which cover above 40% of the continent's surface (Goulden et al., 2009).
Transboundary water management (TWM)
First of all, transboundary water management takes on an essential role especially in Africa. Nine of the ten the most active actors comprising TWMs are located in Africa (Kim & Glaumann, 2012). Kim & Glaumann (2012) further state, that the most attention is thereby drawn to transboundary rivers, whilst other types of transboundary water resources such as aquifers etc. receive little attention. The authors furthermore give examples of the three most imporant basins, which are the Mekong, the Volta and the Nile. The latter will be further discussed in chapter B. There are three goals of TWM, according to Kim & Glaumann (2012): Firstly, the maximum utilisation of the common good; secondly, the conflict prevention between parties; thirdly, providing an ecological sustainability. To delve further into that topic, TWM shall be scrutinised by examining the example of the Nile in chapter B.
B. Transboundary Water Management with Reference to the Example of the Nile
The Nile with its catchment area of of more than 3 million km2 is a river with an immense extent, thereby providing water for many people and populations. The problem is, as brought up earlier, who is allowed to withdrawal how much water from the Nile? The discussion is exacerbated by the fact that this river is a transboundary water resource shared by ten countries. Since these countries discovered that it is crucial to use this resource, which serves more than 230 mill. people as their main water source, very wisely on a transboundary basis (Grossman, 2014), they therefore founded the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) in 1999. Its aim is “to achieve sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources.” (Grossman 2014, p. 5). A project that has been launched in 2010 by the NBI with the title "Adapting to climate change induced water stress in the Nile River Basin", for example.
According to Goulden et al. (2009), the impact of climate change requires adaption to the same in river basins. The following paragraph aims to scrutinise the actions which take place in terms of the Nile based on Goulden et al. their statements on how to adapt to climate change in river basins. Firstly, a serious factor, that has been discussed in the blog post 'Introduction to Climate Change' in this very blog, is uncertainty. Since there is no profound knowledge of what the impact of this natural phenomenon is going to be, a precise prediction of the upcoming challenges is hard to make, thus one can only venture a prognosis. The mentioned project, "Adapting to climate change induced water stress in the Nile River Basin", aims to build resilience for the ecosystems and economies hosted by the Nile. This approach shall be realised by building adaptive capacity and adaption itself, based on financial, technical and policy interventions (UNEP, 2012). As Goulden et al. (2009) suggest, an auspicious approach to reacting to the climate change is to analyse the different sources of uncertainty, based on various climate and impact models. According to UNEP (2012), they pursue a very similar approach of planning. Inception meetings regarding that issue have taken place in 2012 as well as other measures have been adopted in that regard.
Secondly, money is obviously an issue. The adaptive capacity is more or less determined by the financial resources, thus basins with weaker means are less likely to be able to adapt to upcoming challenges. The emerging question here is if that is going to lead to an aggravation of the issues of the distribution of water and the issue that is going to be addresses in the following:
Thirdly, there still is the confusion of who is allowed to use the water resource to which extent. Which of the ten countries is supposed may withdrawal the most water from the Nile, which the the fewest of all? Populations claim to have to right to use the resource based on their hydrography, i.e. what are the proportions of the river basin within a country's territory. Another claim is based on the chronology, meaning for how long has a country been using that particular river basin. The issue regarding the water rights has to be addressed by upcoming treaties or the like. Whilst delving further into the subject, I found a huge debate which unfortunately would go beyond the constraints of this blog post. The impression of that issue shall remain and also mark the conclusion of chapter B. The following and concluding chapter is supposed to discuss the TWR potential.
C. The Potential of Transboundary Water Resources regarding the Climate Change
Since the challenges that Africa is going to face in the future have been discussed, the emphasis is put on the possible benefits of TWR in the following. At first, it has to be abundantly clear that the role of such resources is poorly understood regarding their key role they are going to play in the future (Goulden et al., 2009). The key factor for a successful adaption to the changing conditions is going to be cooperation. Every river basin is unique and different, and so are the states using the resource. The authors futher state, cooperation includes multiple benefits that would take every participating state further. Through a cooperative alliance, a share of knowledge, measures and projects is possible, thus enhancing the adaption to the climate change. Fortunately, cooperation is one of the key points of the NBI.
In my opinion, a functioning and flexible alliance would form a great force to address water scarcity issues. If the same would be functioning, there would be possibilities of helping countries and populations which suffer from a lack of water by providing overage water storages to them. This notion might not appear very likely, but its powerful potential should encourage one to give it at least second thought.
References
Goulden, M., Conway, D., Persechino, A., 2009, Adaption to climate change in international river basins, Hydrological Sciences, 54, 5, pp. 805-823.
Grossman, M., 2014, Transboundary Water Management, Support to cooperation on shared waters, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, pp. 5-6.
Abiye, T.A., 2010, An overview of the transboundary aquifers in East Africa, Journal of African Earth Sciences, 58, 4, pp. 805-823.
Kim, K., Glaumann, K., 2012, Transboundary Water Management, Who Does What, Where?, Swedish Water House, xy, x, pp.xx-xx.
United Nations Environment Programme, 2012, Adapting to climate change induced water stress in the Nile River Basin, United Nations Environment Programme, http://www.unep.org/climatechange/adaptation/EbA/NileRiverBasin/tabid/29584/Default.aspx.
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