Inter-state Water Disputes in India: Institutions and Policies

In this paper the authors argue that Indian water dispute settlement mechanisms are ambiguous and opaque. The authors distinguish analytically between situations where co-operation is possible, and situations of pure conflict, where the initial allocation of rights is at stake. In the latter case, a search for a negotiated solution may be futile, and quick movement to arbitration or adjudication may be more efficient. However, in India, the process is slow, and effectively binding arbitration does not exist. The entanglement of inter-state water disputes with more general centre-state conflicts and political issues compounds problems. The authors argue that these impacts can be reduced by a more efficient design of mechanisms for negotiating inter-state water disputes: some of the possibilities include a national water commission independent of daily political pressures, a federated structure incorporating river basin authorities and water user associations and fixed time periods for negotiation and adjudication.     

水事纠纷解决机制一般程序探讨

水事矛盾频发的现实以及行政调处的"政府失灵"使得司法审判成为水事纠纷解决机制新的期冀。利益纠葛复杂、行政权力色彩浓厚的水事纠纷案件能否最终得到司法的公正裁决考究着现行法律制度的良莠。将水事纠纷行政处理纳入诉讼程序的范畴,并付诸于司法实践,可以起到"阳光化"的监督作用。     

水事纠纷中水事义务转让的法律分析

水事纠纷不仅有权利纠纷,还有义务纠纷,对水事纠纷的概念不应只从权利的角度来解释。水事义务转让是与水权转让相对应的另一类水事关系转让。对其进行了简单的法律分析,对其法律依据和现行水事义务转让法治化的困难作了简要阐述,最后通过对湖南省道县向阳坝水电站的灌溉义务转让纠纷案例,进行水事义务转让的法律分析。     

文成县小水电纠纷成因及解决机制

小水电纠纷已成为制约小水电发展、影响农村社会稳定的重要问题。以浙江省文成县为例,调查了小水电纠纷的诉求方式及不利后果,分析了小水电纠纷发生的原因,介绍了已经见效的比较成功的做法,并在此基础上提出了解决小水电纠纷的对策,即建立纠纷解决机制,加强小电站审批管理,准确把握政策界限,落实部门协作措施。     

Conflicts over Water Resource Management in Brazil: A Case Study of Inter-Basin Transfers

Developing countries such as Brazil, with limited track-records in dealing with environmental conflicts on a participatory basis, or whose legal frameworks establishing water resource management practices have been introduced only recently, need mechanisms that streamline and strengthen democratic negotiating and decision processes. Increasingly common worldwide, transferring water is developing into a specific source of disputes whose solutions are becoming significant, particularly in the developing countries. This paper analyzes the application of the strategic choice methodology in a dispute over transferring water between two river basins, which is a situation not covered by specific legislation in Brazil. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the application of this methodology is particularly relevant in cases such as this, where decisions are taken on an incremental basis over time, within a context of political, administrative and legal uncertainties.     

水资源危机与国际争端

全球的淡水资源占水资源总量的25%,人类可利用的占淡水资源的0.26%,而且地域、时空分布极不均衡。近年来,水荒频繁出现,因水短缺及权属问题引发的国际争端时有发生。为避免或减少这种争端,国际间应共同制订国际河川开发利用的通用规则。     

Transboundary sharing of river water: Informating the policies

This paper presents an ontological framework that concisely captures the combinatorial complexity of river water sharing and visualizes the problem in its entirety. The framework's dimensions, the dimensions' taxonomies, and the resultant pathways are a complete, closed representation of the river water sharing problem. The framework is transdisciplinary; it is grounded in the research, the legal, and the practice literature on river water sharing. The authors illustrate the method and the application of the framework with the case study of Cauvery River water dispute between the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The approach can help develop innovative pathways to resolve such problems.     

International Rivers as Boundaries

Abstract

International rivers serve a number of purposes, the most obvious are the navigational and non-navigational uses. Less noticed is the fact that international rivers are also used to delimit boundaries between nations. The immediate question that would arise is: Where are such boundaries actually drawn across the river? Boundaries, however, are established by treaties and the answer to this question is often included in the interpretation of treaties delimiting such water boundaries, taking into account the special characteristics of the international river. Indeed, this has been the case regarding the boundaries across the Chobe river between Botswana and Namibia. Determining where such boundaries lie would result in deciding to whom a disputed Island, the Kasikili/Sedudu, belongs. In a praiseworthy step, the two countries agreed to take their dispute over the Island, after failure to resolve it through negotiations, to the International Court of Justice. This paper discusses the uses of international rivers as boundaries, and reviews the dispute between Botswana and Namibia, and the decision of the Court thereon.     

论省际水事纠纷解决机制之完善

我国省际水事纠纷解决机制的完善可从立法、行政和司法三方面入手。立法解决机制需要进行基础拓展,包括修改地方组织法和进行区域行政立法;行政解决机制需要稳步完善,需要确立流域行政和地方行政的综合解纷机制,增设地方水事纠纷调处委员会制度;司法解决机制需要有远景实践,法院可以受理水事纠纷案件,应当充分发挥仲裁机构解决水事纠纷的作用。     

重新审视水事纠纷的价值

水事纠纷是一种复杂的社会现象.运用政治学、社会学、法哲学三个视角对水事纠纷的价值进行了重新审视,得出水事纠纷既具有消极功能也具有积极功能,应当树立辩证的纠纷观,全面地、辩证地看待水事纠纷.     

No Easy Exit: Property Rights,Markets, and Negotiations over Water

The role of water has featured prominently in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process, and in Arab-Israeli disputes in general. The allocation or reallocation of water rights is a particularly thorny problem. Recent work seeks to sidestep the issue of rights allocation by appealing to the Coase theorem, which provides conditions under which the efficient use of a good does not depend on the allocation of property rights. It instead emphasizes the small use value of the water in dispute, and concludes that a trade of 'water for peace' should be eminently possible. Here, we provide a critique of this conclusion, based on two central ideas. First, that the conditions of the Coase theorem are not satisfied, even approximately, and therefore the valuation of the use of water cannot be analytically separated from the allocation of property rights. Second, the existence of sub-national interests, and the need to have an agreement acceptable to important actors at this level, creates a further difficulty for negotiating a resolution of any dispute. Even if a trade at the national level can be agreed upon, domestic losers must be compensated enough to make it politically feasible for the national government.     

Nitrate in Water: The Application of a Conceptual/Analytical Framework

This paper presents an analysis of institutional arrangements for management of nitrate pollution in England. The causes, effects and consequences of the problem and the key managementissues are outlined. Results indicate that the effectivenessof the management of nitrate pollution has improved after 1985. Nevertheless, three key obstacles are identified which have limited the effectiveness of the arrangements: poor coordination at the regional and local levels, disputes regarding the equitable allocation of costs, and the uncertainties associated with the problem. Catchment-based planning of land and water, linked consultation arrangements, principled negotiation and an adaptive management approach are recommended to overcome these obstacles.     

松辽流域水事纠纷调处方法探析

松辽流域省际间的界河、跨省(自治区)河流较多,随着经济的迅速发展省际间出现了多起水事纠纷。本文结合参加调处的多起省际间水事纠纷,对流域机构在流域内调处水事纠纷的方法进行了探析。     

Unpacking water conflicts: a reinterpretation of coordination problems in China’s water-governance system

In China, water conflicts have been traditionally framed as the external costs of economic development and tackled with technocratic measures. This study examines water conflicts through the lens of water diversion, water allocation and water functional zoning. It reframes water conflicts as a result of coordination problems nested in complex inter-jurisdictional interactions. With a game-theoretic illustration, it identifies that individual and group heterogeneities are two challenges to effective coordination. It argues that China’s state-centric water institutions are tailored to optimize overall social utilities, yet they constrain coordination due to insufficient costs and benefits redistribution mechanisms at the local level.     

长江流域省际河流中水事纠纷冲突与对策措施

以长江流域为例,对现有的省际河流中水事纠纷的冲突类型、特征及存在问题进行了分析,提出流域一体化管理、加强法律法规建设、引入市场经济机制、运用水权水市场理论指导水事纠纷等对策措施。     

The Mahomet Aquifer

Abstract

Emerging intrastate transboundary issues focus on use of the Mahomet aquifer, which underlies about fifteen counties and many other political entities in east-central Illinois. This sand and gravel aquifer in the lower part of the buried Mahomet Bedrock Valley ranges between four and fourteen miles wide and from about 50 to 200 feet thick. Much of the region's rural population, several large communities, and many small towns obtain water from the Mahomet aquifer, as do industrial, agricultural, and commercial users. Increased development of the Mahomet aquifer to meet growing demands for water has caused conflicts over real or perceived adverse effects. One result has been the creation of fifteen resource protection zones and twelve water authorities. For groundwater supplies, resource protection zones help municipalities protect water-supply wells from potential adverse impacts. Many resource protection zones overlap one another, however, so this situation could lead to disputes over use of the resource. The reason that several of the twelve water authorities were organized was to meet a challenge perceived from a demand to be placed on the aquifer, in other words, a potential for conflict of use. Complicating the situation is that some of the water authorities overlap the resource protection zones. This could lead to disputes not only about water use, but also over which jurisdiction has the authority to settle a dispute. The Mahomet Aquifer Consortium was recently organized by concerned people representing diverse groundwater interests at the local level, including the private sector, professional organizations, and various governmental units. The consortium brings together representatives of some groups that typically did not communicate with each other in the past. The consortium may provide a forum through which emerging transboundary issues pertaining to use of the Mahomet aquifer can be addressed. Because the consortium is a voluntary organization that relies on consensus building, the success it may achieve in resolving future conflicts over groundwater use from the Mahomet aquifer remains to be seen.     

长江三角洲区域跨界水污染治理的多层协商策略

针对长江三角洲跨界水污染问题治理困难的现状,采用协商的方式来解决跨界水污染问题及水事纠纷。根据目前长江三角洲跨界水污染问题的层次性特点,指出长江三角洲应针对不同的治理需求建立跨界水污染治理的多层次协商机制,分别从战略层面、管理层面和地方层面进行水战略协商、水行政协商和水事纠纷协商,各层次协商采用不同的协商组织形式,具有不同的协商内容。     

A Tale of Two Waters: the Missouri River,the Great Lakes and Management of Future Water Conflicts

Abstract

This paper analyzes recent developments regarding Missouri River management and water use, and the potential for an emerging inter-basin water dispute involving the Great Lakes. It is suggested that revisions to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' master manual for the Missouri River and increasing efforts to put Missouri River water to beneficial use in support of economic growth present the prospect of low water levels in the Mississippi River. With a history of looking to the Chicago diversion as a source for augmenting flows in the Mississippi River, it may yet again prove to be an irresistible temptation. The institutional capacity for managing such a water dispute seems surprisingly weak. The direction suggested is that mechanisms should be installed to ensure that Great Lakes water remains in its basin, consistent with watershed management practices. The recent efforts by the Great Lakes states and provinces represent an important development in this direction. It is further suggested that demand pressures in the Missouri River should be met through a similar commitment, potentially through a water sharing arrangement on the Missouri River, something which could be encouraged in part by ensuring stricter controls on the Chicago diversion.     

Interstate negotiation mechanisms for cooperation in the Mekong river basin

Abstract

China, an upstream state and a regional hegemon in the Mekong River Basin, is commonly viewed as unilaterally exploiting water resources, irrespective of downstream states (Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia). This view is derived mainly from China's unilateral exploitation of the upper watershed for hydroelectricity and navigation, raising concerns about negative socio‐ecological impacts on the downstream states. However, recent empirical evidence shows that China is gradually getting involved in negotiations and processes with the downstream states, compromising with them little by little. Indications of this policy shift include: (a) its signing agreements for hydrological data exchange, (b) confidence‐building with co‐riparians in the Dialogue Meeting of the Mekong River Commission, and (c) multinational negotiation with co‐riparians in framework of regional institutions. In light of this shift, this article argues that China is not fully enjoying its superior resources or its superior riparian position, contrary to the common view. The aim of this paper is to (1) explain and provide updated information on these negotiation mechanisms, which are attempting to resolve the upstream‐downstream dispute in the Mekong River Basin, and (2) produce counterevidence against the Theory of Hegemonic Cooperation.     

巴丹吉林沙漠湖泊和地下水补给机制

巴丹吉林沙漠湖泊及地下水的补给来源和补给途径问题近年来争议很大。根据巴丹吉林沙漠湖泊及地下水的特征,就水化学条件、环境同位素及相关的示踪理论研究巴丹吉林沙漠湖泊和地下水的补给机制。结果表明:巴丹吉林沙漠湖泊和地下水的补给源有黑河中上游河水、祁连山大气降水和冰雪融水,比较有争议的补给源是青藏高原上的一些湖泊水,尽管都有同位素依据,但没有考虑到氧漂移因素。在补给途径上,既有河西走廊祁连山前缘洪积扇地下水、雅布赖山前洪积扇地下水等通过巨厚覆盖层潜水或承压盆地水对巴丹吉林沙漠湖泊和周边地下水的缓慢补给,也有祁连山区大气降水和冰雪融水入渗通过基岩地层的深部循环后向上渗透补给沙漠湖泊及周边地下水的快速补给,而且已经从古老碳酸盐岩地层的存在、区域活动断裂构造体系的发育,以及地下水幔源氦同位素特征、巴丹吉林沙漠湖泊中钙华幔源碳特征等方面得到验证。