Sub-theme
6. Innovation for Water Governance and Management
Topic
6-7. Role of national and international law
Body
Water touches nearly every aspect of development. It drives economic growth, supports healthy ecosystems, is essential to our food and energy production and has strong cultural values. At the same time, economic development, urbanization and population growth drive up freshwater demand. Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), such as Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-America Development and the World Bank Group, assist their client countries with financing to meet this demand including, among other, through investments to increase water supply from conventional and alternative water sources. MDBs thus play an important role in promoting water security at a national scale but also at basin-scale and at the regional-level. Their investments frequently relate to freshwater systems that are shared by two or more countries. And often they concern transboundary river, lake and aquifers systems already exposed to multiple anthropogenic and/or natural pressures, including climate change. Increasing global temperatures directly impact on the global water cycle, increasing the likelihood of extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts. Where multiple countries rely on the same shared water resources, and particularly where these are getting scarcer or are subject to increasing hydrologic variability, information sharing is vital for the sustainable management and development of these resources. Recognizing this need, many MDBs have adopted policies that deal with the assessment of potential riparian impacts and information sharing. The proposed Conference contribution will present the approaches that different MDBs take when financing projects on shared freshwater systems and how they deal with the riparian interests that may arise from such projects. It will review and compare relevant MDB policies and assess how they contribute to information sharing and the sustainable use of shared freshwater systems. The contribution will assess how these policies integrate principles of customary international water law, as well as their potential to promote riparian dialogue and cooperation over shared resources. Sustainable development of shared water resources is vital to meet the water needs of generations to come, and MDBs play an important role in contributing to this objective.