Sustainable management of water resources and international law

Abstract

The need is being increasingly felt within the international community for more careful consideration of the legal and institutional aspects involved in the use and management of water resources. Existing legal regimes, both national and international, may have no provisions for regulating or controlling new needs for sustainable management of waters. Innovative legal frameworks for water must thus be designed to both facilitate and achieve efficient allocation or reallocation of resources for environmental protection and proceed towards the attainment of social, economic and more general sustainable development goals. The no-harm rule, the equitable apportionment principle and the duty of consultation and negotiation among riparian or sharing States are now integrated by rules and standards pertaining to the new branch of international law on sustainable development: the duty of co-operation, the precautionary principle, the prevention rule, the polluter-pays principle, the environmental impact assessment requirement, which are gaining relevance also in the context of international water resources law, as shown by the 1997 New York Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. Sustainable water management also implies widespread adoption of good governance principles that ensure broader participation in development decisions and an open decision-making process. In developing and using water resources, priority has to be given to the satisfaction of the basic right to water. This paper intends to identify an effective legal international regime for management of water resources, compliant with sustainable development principles solemnly asserted within international law.