International Water Allocation and Sharing Agreements: Pathways to Peace and Sustainable Development

1. 10th Conference on Applied Infrastructure Research “Institutional Models in Infrastructure Sectors – Conceptual Issues and Empirical Evidence” Friday, 7 October, 201114:15 – 15:00 Technical University Berlin “Water Allocation and Use:  Recent Research and Policy Issues” Frank A. WardNew Mexico State University USA

2. Q: What modern water policy debates influence the allocation and use of water? A: Dividing Transboundary Waters Focus of Talk: Dividing the Waters for Peace

3. Road Map • River Basins • Background Issue • Principles • Need for Water Sharing Agreements • A Successful Agreement: The Rio Grande Compact • A Controversial Agreement: The Pecos Compact • A Model Agreement: Sharing Inflows

7. Nile Basin, Egypt

8. Nile • Could IRBA help inform debates on alternative ways of sharing the Nile’s flows among its countries? Especially • Ethiopia • Sudan • Egypt

9. Rio Grande Basin

10. Rio Grande • Rio Grande Compact: It defines rules for sharing water among the US riparians: • Colorado • New Mexico • Texas

11. Tigris-Euphrates Basin

12. Tigris-Euphrates • Can IRBA help identify economic effects of water sharing arrangements among riparians?

13. Balkh Basin, Afghanistan

14. Balkh Basin, Afghanistan • Main staple is wheat • 14 canal systems share River’s water. • Mirabs’ communication • Little central or regional govt. authority to enforce water rights. • Water wasted at top of watershed. So no reliable water at lower lands. • How should water rights be defined and river flows shared for promoting peace and food security?

15. Background • Previous IRBA • Nile, Egypt • Balkh, Afghanistan • Murray, Australia • Rio Grande, USA • Amu Darya, Central Asia • Tigris-Euphrates • Nilufur, Turkey • Jordan

16. Background • Aims: Examine barriers and opportunities for forging sustainable international water sharing agreements.

17. Background • Means: Identify and illustrate principles that motivate cooperation among states to draft and implement lasting settlements.

18. Principle • For a water sharing agreement to last, all parties must secure and sustain a greater benefit with the agreement than without. • For an agreement to sustain these benefits, it must have flexibility to adapt to future changes in • water supplies • population • climate • technology • infrastructure • political boundaries • economic activity

19. Benefits of Transboundary Water Sharing Agreement (in promoting peace) • Each state develops water independently, needing only to meets downstream obligations…new lands, new reservoirs, growing populations,… • Reduces uncertainty • Future population • Future industry, environmental needs

20. Example Structure of Integrated River Basin Analysis: Rio Grande

21. Objective

22. Constraints • Irrigable land, Headwater supplies • Sustain key ecological assets • Hydrologic balance • Reservoir starting levels (sw, gw) • Reservoir sustainability constraints (sw, gw) • Institutional • Endangered Species Act • Rio Grande Compact (CO-NM; NM-TX) • US Mexico Treaty of 1906 • Rio Grande Project water sharing history (NM/TX)

23. Gauged Flows: Hydro Balance • E.g.: Lobatosgauge (CO-NM border): X(Lobatos_v,1) = X(RG_h,1) - X(SLV_d,1) + X(SLV_r,1)

24. Results: Rio Grande Basin • Policy: Subsidize drip irrigation with an upper bound on existing depletions to guarantee downstream delivery obligations

26. One Successful Sharing Agreement: The Rio Grande CompactDivides Annual Natural Flows

27. Rio Grande Compact: Has a Water Sharing Formula(1000 acre feet / year) • Colorado delivers to New Mexico • New Mexico delivers to Texas

28. Results: Economic value of water sharing under the Rio Grande Compact • Colorado: knows it has an upper bound on delivery requirements • New Mexico: has a guaranteed water supply from CO and an upper bound on deliveries to Texas. • Texas: has a guaranteed supply • Total Value of Compact: about 30% of economic value of water would be lost without RG Compact. All states would have a lower value of water because of greater uncertainty of supplies

29. One Controversial Agreement: The Pecos River Compact • “. . . New Mexico shall not deplete by man's activities the flow of the Pecos River at the New Mexico-Texas state line below an amount which will give to Texas a quantity of water equivalent to that available to Texas under the 1947 condition. . . “

30. Water Sharing Agreements and Infrastructure • Sustained international water agreements can enhance the development of water infrastructure.  Examples • reservoirs • irrigation facilities • water treatment facilities • piped in water • peace pipelines • environmental restorations

31. Needs for future Research • What can be done to promote establishment of water sharing agreements when current conditions don’t favor them? • When governments are corrupt • When there is no history of water sharing among the communities? • When water rights are poorly defined or assigned to the most powerful • When two countries won’t talk to each other? • Could an IRBA promote discussion?

32. Thank You