Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management

Perhaps the most famous American quote regarding water and conflict is attributed to the writer Mark Twain who stated “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.” What underlies this quote, though, is the reality that most of the real conflict over water that has occurred throughout the ages has been initiated between individuals or small enclaves of individuals and not between sovereign bodies. Rarely have two countries gone to battle over water and, generally, when they have done so they have restricted themselves to attacking the water infrastructure rather than the water itself. Allocation of the resource is the number-one cause of conflict, whether between sovereign nations or individuals. This paper provides a glimpse into the history of water and conflict and provides some insight into how compacts between states that share a resource might reduce future conflict.

This paper examines political boundaries to determine if changing the boundary function or placement will lessen conflicts. A political geography approach provides the framework for analysis. Although water managers advocate using watershed boundaries for planning, changing boundary locations to accommodate water management is unlikely to occur except at the finest scale. Therefore, transboundary water conflicts are an inevitable part of water management. The key to reducing conflicts is to change the boundary functions. Boundaries can be a unifying influence or a barrier depending on their degree of permeability. A country’s internal and external boundaries have different functions and degrees of permeability. In some instances international boundaries can be completely impermeable. Three formal legal methods can be used to reduce conflicts and overcome boundary impermeability. These methods are evaluated to see which one provides the best water management solution. The best solution is an administrative unit that ignores existing political boundaries. Creating effective administrative units such as this requires political will and compromise.

Water is one of the most vital of all resources for human survival and thriving. Water is also an inherently shared resource, one that does not respect human boundaries—boundaries between persons, between communities, and between states and nations. Because of these characteristics, water management must always focus on boundaries—on how to allocate water within and across boundaries as well as how those boundaries impact upon optimum water management in general. This raises questions about how to structure water management and water laws to best manage the water. In particular, there is a constant stress between the need to meet private goals and the need to serve public needs when the focus is on boundaries. In the end, water is an inherently public good that must be subject to a regime of public management that subordinates private uses to policies necessary to meet public needs.

The issue of climate change has surfaced as a potential impediment to effective long-range policies and management of water resources. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently published a report substantiating the argument that global warming is occurring. The IPCC reported that while sustainable water yields may or may not be reduced in the long-term average, they will almost certainly be less reliable in the short term. Climate change challenges existing water resources management practices by adding uncertainty. This will be an especially troubling issue for transboundary water sharing agreements. The risks imposed by climate change to transboundary water sharing agreements are discussed and the agreements most at risk are identified by the region in which they are located.

The development of relational databases from which simulation models can access data needed to describe the systems being modeled is fundamental to integrated river basin management, especially in shared, transboundary basins. Creating a geographically referenced database, a geodatabase, for the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin represents the first major attempt to establish a more complete understanding of the basin as a whole, using both Mexican and United States geospatial and temporal water resources data. From the geodatabase, it is possible to obtain information about climatology, water availability, water uses, hydraulic infrastructure, and watershed properties in the basin. These data can be used in simulation models to calculate the state of basin water availability under different climatic and development scenarios and management plans in the future. This geodatabase is intended to be a tool to assist in sharing data to enhance binational cooperation between Mexico and the United States concerning water in this basin, providing accurate and reliable data necessary for analysis and resolution of water resources issues.

Integrated water resource management (IWRM) and water sharing concepts are described. Various definitions of IWRM are presented. It can be described as a facilitated stakeholder process to promote coordinated activities in pursuit of common goals for multiple objective development and management of water founded in sustainable water resource systems. Sustainable water resource systems support social objectives into the indefinite future without undermining hydrologic and ecological integrity. IWRM is comprised of objectives, institutions, implementation, and adaptation, reflecting merging of top-down and bottom-up approaches. It can assume many institutional forms, and is best implemented at the river basin or subbasin scales. Several water sharing models and principles are introduced. Examples of mature yet different IWRM governance structures in California and France are presented. Wide-scale adoption of IWRM remains elusive. Changing societal values, increasing water demands, growing water use conflicts, and link to poverty reduction and economic development provide impetus to adopt IWRM; it remains a promising mechanism to better use and share water to balance economic, environmental, and social aspects that underpin sustainable development.

The effectiveness of any law, regulation, contract, or legally enforceable agreement, regardless of the subject matter, depends on how effectively it is administered and how rigorously its provisions are enforced. Water sharing agreements are no different. The importance of the administration and institutional provisions of a water sharing agreement cannot be overemphasized. Without effective administration, implementation of the agreement to share water will falter and enforcement of its provisions will be limited. Without an effective institutional framework, the parties will spend much of their time and resources in dispute resolution rather than effective water management. These institutional provisions will involve far more than just engineering management of the water resources in question. They must also involve establishing procedures to manage complicated coordination among a number of private and public institutions, addressing critical social and cultural issues, and responding to complex environmental and ecological sustainability needs. A review of the historical record of both international and American water sharing institutions provides specific organizational design principles that are important for developing effective water sharing agreements. These organizational design principles should provide the framework for the agreement. Within this framework, the specifics of the water sharing agreement will be based on certain salient features of governance, to include agreement purposes and objectives, rules of decision, assignment of powers and duties, accountability and responsiveness, compliance, and dispute resolution.

The city of Virginia Beach, Va. completed an interbasin transfer from Lake Gaston on the Roanoke River for municipal water supply in 1998 after years of controversy. Federal regulatory and judicial decision processes provided the primary forums for debating the proposal’s merits. A major project opponent was the state of North Carolina in which most of Lake Gaston and the downstream portion of the river are located. Interbasin transfers are always controversial as the direct impacts in the area of origin are compounded by concern over possible disruption in the sense of place and environmental quality that water contributes to an area. The Virginia Beach transfer produces relatively modest impacts as it is small in relation to the size of the source, leading to a consistent regulatory finding of no significant environmental impact. Alternatives were limited as significant demand reduction measures had already been implemented, additional local water sources were limited, desalination would have been more costly, and construction of new reservoirs would have been environmentally damaging. The transfer appears to provide a relatively noninjurious solution to a reasonable need for water supply expansion.

This paper employs an economic-engineering optimization model to explore water supply options for environmental restoration of the Colorado River Delta, Mexico. Potential water sources include reductions in local agricultural and urban water use through water markets, wastewater reuse, and additional Colorado River flows from the United States. For these alternatives, the optimization model estimates operating and water scarcity costs, water scarcity volumes, and marginal economic costs of environmental flows and values of additional Colorado River flows from the United States over a range of required delta environmental flows. Economic values for agricultural and urban water uses were estimated by two ancillary models. The results provide insights into economically promising water supplies for restoration activities. Quantifying the trade-off between agricultural and urban economic valuation and environmental flows provides a framework for decision makers to quantify their valuation of environmental flows. The model also provides a framework for integrating additional knowledge of the system as information becomes available.