Transboundary Waters
Content Table
A transboundary waterway is defined as all territory which contributes to a stream, at least one of the tributaries of which crosses a boundary. Almost half the Earth's land surface (excluding Antarctica) and 60%of the world's fresh water falls within transboundary basins.
Transboundary water management is a very extensive topic, impossible to summarize in one article.
To begin with, the following sections will show transboundary river basins and relevant transboundary water management organizations.
Africa
Africa offers the most extreme case of transnational waters. Every continental African state has territory on at least one transnational river basin, and such basins cover 62% of Africa’s total land area. Depending on how they are defined, there are more than 60 transnational rivers and large lakes (these figures exclude shared groundwater aquifers, which are even more challenging than surface water). Nearly half of these are shared by three or more countries and the ten largest basins are shared by four or more countries. Fifteen countries have five or more shared basins within their national borders.
International river basins
Details available here: http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu/publications/register/tables/IRB_africa.html
Transboundary aquifers
Details available here: http://www.isarm.net/dynamics/modules/SFIL0100/view.php?fil_Id=254
River basin organizations
- Lake Chad Basin Commision (Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria)
- Niger Basin Authority (Benin, Bukino Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast)
- Nile Basin Initiative (Burundi, D.R. Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya)
- Orange-Senqu River Commission (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa)
- Organization of Cooperation for the Development of the Gambia River Basin (Gambia, Guinea, Senegal)
- Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (Mali, Mauritania, Senegal)
- Zambezi River Authority (Zambia, Zimbabwe)
Asia
International river basins
Details available here: http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu/publications/register/tables/IRB_asia.html
Transboundary aquifers
Details available here: http://www.isarm.net/dynamics/modules/SFIL0100/view.php?fil_Id=255
River basin organizations
- Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central Asia (Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Republic of Uzbekistan).
- Joint Rivers Commission (Bangladesh and India)
- Mekong River Commission (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam)
South America
River basin organizations
- Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela)
- Autonomous Binational Authority of the Basin of Lake Titicaca (Bolivia, Peru)
- Guarani Aquifer System (Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay, Uruguay)
- Intergovernmental Coordinating Committee of the River Plate Basin Countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay)
- Uruguay River Management Commission (Argentina, Uruguay)
Europe
River basin organizations
- Border River Commission between Finland and Sweden (Finland, Sweden)
- Finnish Norwegian Transboundary Water Commission (Finland, Norway)
- Genevese Aquifer Management Commission (France, Switzerland)
- Guadiana River Commission (Spain, Portugal)
- International Commission for the Protection of Lake Geneva (France, Switzerland)
- International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine)
- International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe (Germany, Czech Republic)
- International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (Germany, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland)
- International Meuse Commission (Belgium, France)
- International Sava River Basin Commission (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia)
- Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation (Estonia, Russia)
References
International River Basin Registry
