Water Sharing Treaties and Tensions in Europe: Managing Resources and Geopolitics

2023-06-10 11:14:17

Severe droughts affecting parts of Europe such as Spain and Portugal are creating tensions over water sharing. However, treaties have been signed to find solutions. They must still be respected, noted Monday in Tout Un Monde the specialist Christian Bréthaut.

Hundreds of international agreements and conventions exist to regulate the management of waters shared between several States, like the New York convention signed in 1997 and that of Helsinki in 1992. But these treaties are not always enough to limit tensions between the countries concerned, especially when geopolitics enters into the debate.

Christian Bréthaut, assistant professor in water governance at the Institute of Environmental Sciences of the University of Geneva, underlines the lack of respect for these treaties in the context of the current climate emergency. “An agreement is always welcome to avoid conflicts, but it is not a magic solution that makes it possible to avoid all problems. We observe that extreme climatic conditions put pressure on agreements signed in the past. They also raise the problem the adaptation of cooperation frameworks between States for water management.”

Although it is a common good, in reality water too often remains a source of rivalry and grabbing.

Christian Bréthaut, assistant professor in water governance at the Institute of Environmental Sciences of the University of Geneva

He adds that “tensions are crystallizing around the use of water on a regional scale” (see box below). The best way to resolve tensions is therefore not to wait but rather “to anticipate possible challenges by investing in diagnoses and identifying possible sources or avenues of collaboration between the different States”.

Source of tension

Although it is a common good, water is also an object that has structured political borders and illustrated the balance of power between upstream and downstream, regrets the guest of Tout Un Monde. “If this notion of common good should be a natural reading grid, we can clearly see in reality to what extent water too often remains a source of rivalry and grabbing.”

This is one of the causes of the dispute over the construction of the Renaissance mega-dam in the waters of the Nile. At the end of March, Ethiopia announced the 90% completion of its dam and the start of the fourth and final phase of filling, leaving Egypt and Sudan, located downstream of the river, powerless. Egypt fears immeasurable damage to its social and economic stability.

>> To know everything regarding the tensions linked to this dam, read: Africa’s highest dam, with controversial impact, inaugurated in Ethiopia

For Christian Bréthaut, this situation demonstrates that water does not only pose problems of resources but also of geopolitics. “This example illustrates both the technical issues of resource management and the way in which water can enter into power relations and be instrumentalized for the production of political, even nationalist discourses.”

According to him, the construction of the dam has “reshuffled the cards” of the use of water in the basin and has “reversed the situations of forces established for decades”. “Today the dam has been built and tensions remain high, in particular with numerous negotiations which relate to the management methods – how to manage water in times of great drought – and also how to define a framework of cooperation which is binding or not between the actors.”

>> To go further, read: These water wars that threaten us

Cooperation Vector

But water does not always create tension. It is also often a vector of cooperation and peace, reassures the specialist. “Since the 1950s, there have been only regarding forty marked incidents and conflicts at the cross-border level for the use of water. About 334 international agreements on water were negotiated and signed over this period, participating to dynamics of peace and stability at regional scales.”

The signing of international agreements around water makes it possible to create a common language and to maximize common benefits.

Christian Bréthaut, assistant professor in water governance at the Institute of Environmental Sciences of the University of Geneva

Beyond agreements, rivers can be supervised by international commissions. “These organizations intervene for water management missions and also for missions related to energy, irrigation, environmental protection and navigation”, details the one who heads the Unesco chair in hydropolitics. “So they are really there to participate in the creation of a common language between stakeholders and different cultures and in the creation of a community in which water is more than just a resource.”

According to the assistant professor, “cooperation around water management can make it possible to maximize common benefits and distribute them among different stakeholders. For example, we can imagine collaboration between upstream which allows the production of electricity and the downstream which allows agricultural production with exchanges between the States.

Sujet radio: Eric Guevara-Frey

Adaptation web: Julie Marty

1686397383
#climate #emergency #forcing #actors #adapt #cooperation #water #management #rts.ch