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Water Law Research

The Centre undertakes a wide breadth of research recognising that if water law is to effectively implement Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles and thus help the international community reach international development targets three essential elements must be considered: water rights, frameworks for allocation, and institutional mechanisms.

We are proud to support the work of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) ToolBox IWRM knowledge exchange resource.  The GWP ToolBox is a free and open database with a library of case studies and references that can be used by anyone who is interested in implementing better approaches for the management of water or learning more about improving water management on a local, national, regional or global level.  The ToolBox is also an excellent tool for you to engage with a broader community of interested professionals around the world and to share your experiences.

Please see our summary document of water law IWRM research papers available freely for full text download.

The Centre focuses on the following three areas of water law research:

International Water Law

International water law concerns the rights and obligations that exist, primarily between States, for the management of transboundary water resources. Such legal rules and principles are dedicated to preventing conflict and promoting cooperation of shared water resources.

There are 263 transboundary major river basins across 145 countries in the world, affecting almost half of the world’s population, and many tensions around the proper management of these waters. These may be managed under multilateral or bilateral agreements, or there may be no proper legal and institutional structures in place – a fact often the cause of great instability. International water law and diplomacy are vital tools, in alleviating poverty and avoiding violent conflict situations.  The International Architecture for Transboundary Water Resources Management was the subject of detailed Policy Analysis and Recommendations made in a joint report between the IHP-HELP Centre and the WWF; this document is available for full text download (see above).

Professor Dr Patricia Wouters has recently published a high-impact publication on water security for the Institute of Public Policy Research on the subject of international water law and water (in)security ; also, see Professor Dr Patricia Wouters, Dr. Sergei Vinogradov and Dr Patricia Jones jointly authored publication  Transforming Potential Conflict into Cooperation Potential (PCCP): The Role of International Water Law, a UNESCO IHP Publication under the PCCP programme, whose online publications include one by our Governming Board member Mr William Cosgrove, Eng.

 

National Water Law

National water law establishes rights to water, allocates water to users, controls pollution and water quality, and creates frameworks for water resource management. Both the implementation of international agreements and the regulation of water services are also matters for national law. The IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy, and Science provides teaching and research examining national water law in a comparative, international, context.  This includes analysis of differing approaches for the development and implementation of effective frameworks for national law.  Two practical examples of which are shown below:

1) Water Governance: Meeting the Challenges of Global Change, 5-10 June 2011 conference report by Tran Tran and Jing Lee. The focus of this European Science Foundation conference was on 'de-globalised, re-localised' implementation of otherwise 'global' norms for the governance of water resources.  Tran Tran was the rapporteur appointed for two of the seven sessions of the conference; she also won the second prize in the poster competition held in conjunction with the Conference.

2) the Legal Assessment Model (LAM), one of the IHP-HELP Centre's most important pieces of research, is designed to answer the key question of:  "how can transboundary watercourse States (upstream, downstream and those that share groundwater) devise national water policies in line with their international entitlements and obligations, whilst ensuring that their neighbours (legally) "do right" to them in turn?" ; additionally, see one page flow diagram of the LAM.

Other key questions include:

Who owns water? Who owns the right to use water? Is there a human right to water? Can water rights be transferred? What is the relationship between land and water rights? How to recognise and respect existing uses and customary entitlements in water law reform? How to protect silent users, such as the environment? How to integrate quantitative and qualitative aspects of water resource protection? How can water markets improve water resources management?Can systems of economic incentives work more effectively than direct regulation?

How should relations between institutions, water users and government be managed? What legal mechanisms are appropriate to ensure public participation in decision-making procedures? Is there a legal right of public access to information? Does the public have a right to effective and affordable administrative and judicial remedies? What role does law play in monitoring the performance of public institutions in order to improve accountability and prevent corruption? What legal framework is necessary to enable the successful implementation of Water Users Associations?

 

Regulation of Water Services

Water services – drinking water and sanitation – are at the heart of the global policy agenda on water. Nearly 1bn people lack safe drinking water, and more than 2.5bn people lack basic levels of sanitation. The United Nations is committed to halving these numbers by 2015, but progress is difficult, especially for sanitation.

An effective legal framework for water is essential to facilitate investment, provide proper regulation of tariffs and standards, and contribute to improving the life of poorer citizens.

Key questions include:

What legal mechanisms are appropriate for effective regulation, benchmarking and monitoring of water service providers? What is the enabling function of legislation and customary law in the successful implementation of large-scale investments in the water and sanitation sector? How can the needs of the poor and the environment be reconciled with economic efficiency within the public-private partnership? What are the most appropriate contractual arrangements between water service providers and governments? How can transparency and accountability be assured within public-private partnership transactions?

The Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) is a key partner for the IHP-HELP Centre in the field of water regulation, and its Chief Executive Mr Alan Sutherland is a member of our Governing Board. WICS promotes the interests of water and sewerage customers in Scotland by making sure they receive a high-quality service and value for money.  On the 31.2.11 it published a positive report on Scottish Water's transformation.


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Contribution to MDGs

According to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Report 2008 more than 1 billion people lack access to drinkable water and more than double that number lack access to sanitation. UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon calls this a ‘silent crisis.’ In development terms, Mr Ban Ki-moon states:  "Safe drinking water and adequate sanitation are crucial for poverty reduction, crucial for sustainable development, and crucial for achieving any and every one of the Millennium Development Goals" (source: www.unicef.org/wash/index_bigpicture.html)

The water law and policy work of the IHP-HELP Centre contends that public policy should address this most fundamental of issues. In fact, governments’ solutions come in the shape of a water service, either public or privately owned; and much of the focus to solve the coverage problem comes by the hand of more investment and better management. Despite the fact that public policy always needs the law to materialize concrete solutions by implementing them in a given legal system, the law is taken often for granted and overlooked.

Usually, implementing public policy is a difficult task, where many good initiatives fail to deliver.  One of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, to ‘reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water’ is such an ambitious target requiring extensive effort and resources to promote real solutions. Governance has been identified as the key issue to solve the problem of water service shortage according to Asian Development Bank and United Nations Development Programme.

Nevertheless, the legal research in this arena is currently scattered as to this extent no focus has been given to the role of law specifically on water utilities. Hence, to help fill this identified gap, the IHP-HELP Centre’s research into the Regulation of Water Services explores water services from a legal point of view, addressing the role of law in promoting appropriate policies, structural design, and regulatory solutions for the water sector.