Sub-theme
6. Innovation for Water Governance and Management
Topic
6-7. Role of national and international law
Body
As water scarcity increases with climate change and overuse, unconventional water resources are becoming more attractive and available. Examples of unconventional water resources include fog harvesting, rainwater harvesting, wastewater recycling, deep groundwater and desalination. As they are used more frequently, questions will arise regarding legal rights to these unconventional resources. Where the resource exists solely in one territory, rights to ownership and control are clear. However, water does not respect human political boundaries, and occasionally water resources cross those pollical boundaries and become transboundary resources to which a number of stakeholders may have rights. For example, if one party seeds clouds to cause rain to fall, and a downwind party consequently receives less or even no rain, has the downwind party been damaged, and does that downwind party have a legal right that has been violated? Another example concerns a deposit of deep groundwater that has been untouched for thousands of years and that straddles one or more political boundaries. If one party follows the law of capture and withdraws deep groundwater that lies under the sovereign territory of another party, have any rights been violated? The purpose of this work is to analyze the rights of various stakeholders that may be associated with each type of unconventional water resource under international law. Such an analysis is critical to designing a governance model that would avoid conflicts over scarce water resources, which is the key purpose of the study. The methodology includes a survey of agreed principles under international law and a discussion of their application to each unconventional water resource, with a focus on transboundary resources. In conclusion, the presentation will propose a governance regime under international law for each unconventional water resource that will define the rights of various stakeholders.