International Water Resources Research Articles

Groundwater quality assessment for sustainable human consumption in arid areas based on GIS and water quality index in the watershed of Ain Sefra (SW of Algeria)

Groundwater quality in arid areas is an issue that requires attention, as often the only source of irrigation and drinking. In this manuscript, a research area of 4590.2 Km2, which depicts important problems of water scarcity and water-poor quality in an arid environment, was assessed. Therefore, GIS-based mapping of the region was carried out to examine the adequacy of groundwater quality. Forty-three (43) groundwater samples were gathered in the fieldwork in March 2022, and various physicochemical limits were analysed within Gibbs and Piper diagrams. Likewise, spatial distribution maps of twelve (12) main water quality parameters were performed using the Inverse Distance Weighted interpolation method (IDW) in the ArcGIS tool. The Water Quality Index (WQI) has been calculated considering Algerian drinking water quality standards and to know the suitability of water for human consumption. A Pearson’s test was carried out to explore the correlations among the different variables. Major results of the study showed that, among anions and cations, sulphates (SO_{4}^{ - 2}) and calcium (Ca) were the most common ions. The WQI showed that 30.23% of the samples have excellent water quality, 62.79% belong to the good water category, and 6.97% fall into the poor water quality category. Thus, the correlation study between many physicochemical properties also showed significant positive relationships between WQI, TDS, EC, TH, {text{SO}}_{4}^{ - 2}, {text{Ca}}^{ + + }, and {text{Mg}}^{ + + }. In agreement with the Gibbs diagram, most of the samples fall into the field of rock-water interaction dominance. Hence, this research shows that using GIS and WQI as joint approaches could be useful tools for the decision-making process of local and international authorities and water resources management.

Organochlorine Compounds in the Amur (Heilong) River Basin (2000-2020): A Review.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are well-known contaminants that raise serious concerns, even more than 20 years after they were banned. Their worldwide distribution and persistence necessitate continuous monitoring in all components of the environment. The most challenging issues of POP regulation are associated with international water resources because their solutions require international cooperation in environment protection. This review provides data on various POPs (DDT, HCH, endrin, dieldrin, and PCBs) and their concentrations in aquatic organisms inhabiting the Amur River basin, one of the most poorly explored regions of Northeast Asia. Most studies have been conducted in the Songhua River (China), a tributary of the Amur River, which indicates that large inland bodies of water, especially those of international importance, require more extensive research.

Editorial Issue 1/2023: Water and Heritage in Action: Commitments for a Sustainable Future

Water awareness is inextricably linked to climate change awareness. In 1987, renowned climate scientist William W. Kellogg wrote an article about “the evolution of awareness” of humankind’s impact on the climate. He noted that over 150 years separated the first observations of this im- pact to the first explicit mention of the greenhouse effect in 1957 (Kellogg 1987). Over 35 years after Kellogg’s article, “awareness” is no longer the greatest challenge: it is “action.” The Water Conference of 1977 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, which aimed at establishing an international water resource management program, proposed an Action Plan to guarantee orderly administration of water resources as a key element for improving socio-economic conditions and quality of life for humankind (United Nations 1983). However, the plan did not result in widespread action and one reason was the broadness with which it was written. The 1977 Action Plan addressed countries generally, without considering specific climates, political structures, economic differences or so- cio-cultural contexts.
 Almost 50 years later and halfway into the Water Action Decade (2018–2028), progress on wa- ter-related goals and targets remains alarmingly off-track (United Nations 2023). The Water Action Agenda and the UN 2023 Water Conference promises a different approach and calls for commit-ments and actions. The president of the General Assembly remarked on the need for game chang- ers: methods, strategies, approaches and programs able to connect multiple disciplines, levels of governance and ways of thinking to enhance cooperation across actors, sectors and scales for sustainable development, beyond a “business as usual” approach (United Nations 2022).

Analysis on competition strategy and regulatory strategy of international river water resources system – with the participation of co-operational agencies

Abstract In order to reasonably allocate water resources, meet the water demand of water users, and solve the frequent conflicts of water resources in international rivers, this paper explores the optimal regulation strategy of water resources with the participation of co-operational agency based on game model. Our results show that: for water users, the regulatory strategy of co-operational agencies affects the competition of water users, and the competition strategies among water users also affect each other. The economic benefits of water resources, water withdrawal costs, fine and honor value all affect the water resources competition strategy of water users. For co-operational agencies, the competition strategy of water users affects the regulatory strategy of co-operational agencies. The intensity of penalization and the regulatory cost have an impact on the regulatory strategy of co-operational agencies, but the amount of operation funds of co-operational agencies does not affect its regulatory strategy. The research shows the water resources game process of international rivers with the participation of co-operational agencies, and provides some insights for the water resources regulation of international rivers.

The World Water Envoys Programme

The International Water Resources Association (IWRA) has been working for more than 50 years towards a more sustainable use and management of the world’s water resources. One of the key instruments is the World Water Congress where knowledge exchange across continents and disciplines is the main mission. For the recent Congress in Daegu, South Korea, IWRA not only worked closely with Korean stakeholders to increase awareness of water-related issues but launched an Envoy Programme inviting young and ambitious people from various countries in the world to bridge the world of the conference audience and the realities of societies for whom clean and sufficient water is out of reach.

Virtual water transfers in Africa: Assessing topical condition of water scarcity, water savings, and policy implications

Africa is facing an increasing challenge with respect to water scarcity (WS), which is driven by climate change, population growth, and socioeconomic growth combined with inadequate water resources management. In particular, there is significant concern of virtual water (VW) trade, which plays the key role in water resource management and food security sustainability. Using bilateral trade data, this study consistently evaluated the change and balanced trade of major grains, the VW flows, WS status, water dependency (WD), water self-sufficiency (WSS), and water savings/losses within5 African sub-regions and their partners from 2000 to 2020. The ratio of water use to water availability was used to estimate the WS. The WD was quantified by the ratio of the net VW import to the regional water appropriation and the regional water savings/losses were also quantified by multiplying the inter-regional trade by the virtual water content of the imported/exported grains. The overall average trade deficit of African regions was found to increase to −1364.22 × 106 tons and Africa imported 41,359.07 Bm3 of VW from grain products. Green water contributed 79.33% of the total VWI. The WS values for East African countries were >100, indicating overexploitation. Besides, the overall WD in Africa was 465.5% for the studied period. The trade of main grains between Africa and the rest of the planet corresponded to a global water loss of 2820.7 Bm3·yr−1. However, the inter-continental cereal VW trade pattern and high trend will continue in the future. In view of the rising tension of WS, some African countries need to revise international crop trade and water resources conservation policies to promote a more balanced ecosystem. This study exemplifies that decision makers would consider VW flows and water savings/losses for enhancing water use efficiency and fair trading, thus increasing food production in Africa.

Brazilian Declaration of Judges on Water Justice of March 2018 as a source of soft environmental law

This article provides the results of research conducted within the framework of the concept of international legal protection of Lake Baikal on the outcome of environmental work of international non-governmental organizations in the sphere of protection and sustainable of water resources. Coverage is given on the activity of the World Water Council. Special attention is turned to the reflection of the main results of the World Water Forum, including the outcome of its activity in form of the Brazilian Declaration of Judges on Water Justice adopted in March 2018. Leaning on the results of the work with authentic text, the author examines 10 basic principles contained in the Brazilian Declaration of Judges on Water Justice, which a certain degree reflect the environmental priority in the consideration of civil, administrative and criminal cases related to the use and protection of waters, with the disclosure of their basic content. One of the proposals is the formation of the Expert Council on Lake Baikal that incorporates the academic staff of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, other representatives of scientific community who take part in preparation of assessment of the scientific validity of draft documents in the sphere of conservation of Lake Baikal that significantly affect then environmental activity in the Baikal Nature Reserve. A proposal is formulated on the inclusion into the current and newly developed programs for the advanced training of judges and prosecutors that imply the study of the key aspects of law enforcement practice in the sphere of environmental protection (considering the natural specificity of the region for the judges to implement their activity). Attention is given to the work of the International Water Resources Association and the results of the 16th World Water Congress held in Cancun (Mexico). The analyzed international experience is extrapolated to the problematic of conservation of the ecosystem of Lake Baikal.

Upper Rio Grande Basin Water-Resource Status and Trends: Focus Area Study Review and Synthesis

HighlightsUpper Rio Grande Basin increased population by 80% with flat public supply water withdrawals from 1980 to 2015.Significant decreasing trends in precipitation, snowmelt rate, streamflow, baseflow, and ET were observed.Simulated near-native streamflow was greater than previous estimates, particularly for higher flow years.More precipitation as rain, slower snowmelt, less streamflow, and greater baseflow fraction impact water security.Abstract. The Upper Rio Grande Basin (URGB) is a critical international water resource under pressure from a myriad of climatic, ecological, infrastructural, water-use, and legal constraints. The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the spatial distribution and temporal trends of selected water-budget components (snow processes, evapotranspiration (ET), streamflow processes, and groundwater storage) using integrated analyses, such as watershed modeling and water availability and use data in the URGB over the past three decades. A spatially distributed snow evolution modeling system simulated snowpack processes over 34 years (1984–2017). It highlighted snow water equivalent declines from -35 to -77 mm/decade with widespread variability across elevation zones and land cover types. Gridded actual ET data from the SSEBop model were developed and tested for the URGB and demonstrated that all land-cover types had significant decreasing trends (1986-2015) ranging from -14 to -80 mm/decade. Conductivity-mass-balance (CMB) hydrograph separation results found that baseflow forms a large component of total streamflow, ranging from 29 to 69% (49% average) of total streamflow at 17 URGB sites upstream of Albuquerque, NM. Three of 4 graphical hydrograph separation methods in the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater Toolbox were found to be inappropriate for estimating baseflow in the URGB; the most promising method, baseflow index (BFI) Standard, was optimized using CMB data and tested at three URGB sites, with resulting overestimation of 0 to 47%. Simulated changes in groundwater storage were extracted from historical and recent groundwater-flow models of select alluvial basins (San Luis, Española, Middle Rio Grande, and Tularosa-Hueco). In general, decreases in groundwater storage were observed from 1903 to 2013 except for the San Luis alluvial basin (Colorado), where periods of recovery are observed. The PRMS hydrologic model was successfully calibrated for 9 near-native subbasins (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency 0.47 to 0.85) and parameters translated to the remaining subbasins; compared to simulated near-native flows (with minimal influence of reservoirs or diversions), observed Rio Grande streamgage flows demonstrated reductions of 40% or more for New Mexico and Texas areas of the basin. Significant decreasing trends (1980-2015) in precipitation, snowmelt rate, streamflow, and baseflow were observed at many of the 12 streamgage basins studied, which suggests that the decreasing trends for actual ET may be related to overall decreasing water availability in the basin, with negative implications for agricultural production and groundwater abstraction. Water security concerns arise from our findings of higher fraction precipitation as rain, slower snowmelt rates leading to decreasing streamflow production, and an increasing fraction of baseflow, all of which will affect the timing and magnitude of water available for human needs in the basin. Keywords: Baseflow, Evapotranspiration, Groundwater, Snow, Streamflow, Watershed model, Water supply.

Reflecting on water challenges of the past, present and future: an intergenerational perspective

In its 50 years of existence, the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) and its regionally and thematically diverse members have played a key role in producing and disseminating knowledg...

Water resource prospects for the next 50 years on the water planet: personal perspectives on a shared history from Earth Day, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and One Health to the futures of alternative energy, bioconvergence and quantum computing

ABSTRACT The history and the future of water resource management as well as the endeavours that it influences are inextricably woven into the fabric of the past, current and future states of all life on our watery planet. From the first Earth Day in 1970 and the founding of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) in 1971 to the development of modern biotechnology applications and alternative energy sources across subsequent decades, this paper reflects on these and other historical underpinnings of how we manage the use of our essential water resources now and might hope to in the future.

Systems approach and performance-based water resources management

In 1975 I was walking with Professor Ven Te Chow, the founding father of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA), asking about future water-related research directions to guide my inte...

Extreme Droughts Change in the Mekong River Basin: A Multidisciplinary Analysis Based on Satellite Data

This study evaluates droughts in the Mekong River Basin (MKB) based on a multidisciplinary method, mainly using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Mann–Kendall (MK) test. Precipitation data corresponding to the seasonality of the regional climate were retrieved from Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement from 2001 to 2020, at a monthly temporal scale and 0.1 degree spatial resolution. Drought events and their average interval, duration, and severity were determined based on Run theory. Our results revealed the most extreme drought period was in January 2014, at the time the lowest precipitation occurred. Spatial extreme drought results indicated that Zone 2 in the upstream MKB has the highest frequency of drought, with 44 events observed during 19 years, and experiences the most severe droughts, whereas Zone 24 in the downstream MKB has the most prolonged drought duration of seven months. The periods and locations of extreme drought were identified using the SPI, corresponding to historic droughts of the MKB. Furthermore, the MK test shows an increasing trend of droughts in the lower MKB and the cluster analysis identified six clusters of times series. Overall, our study provides essential findings for international and national water resource stakeholders in identifying trends of extreme drought in the MKB.

The impact of energy consumption to environmental sustainability: an extension of foreign direct investment induce pollution in Vietnam

PurposeAccording to the crusade of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs-6, 7,8,12 and 13) that addressed pertinent issues around, clean access to water, access to energy, responsible consumption and climate change mitigation alongside, respectively, Paris Kyoto Protocol agreement of mitigation of climate changes issues of vision 2030.Design/methodology/approachThis purpose of this study aimed to assess the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis following the ecological footprint perspective with a data set covering the period 1995–2018. It is well-established that anthropogenic human activities are the root cause of environmental deterioration. To this end, the current study is fitted in a multivariate framework to ameliorate for omitted variable bias for the data set from 1995–2018 on a quarterly frequency using autoregressive distributive lag methodology. Subsequently, the stationarity status of the study underlines series were examined with a conventional unit root test and the Pesaran’s bounds test for cointegration analysis.FindingsEmpirical evidence from the bounds test to cointegration traces the co-integration relationship between ecological footprint, conventional energy use, foreign direct investment, international tourism arrival and water resources over the sampled period. The study, in the long run, affirms the N-shaped relationship between ecological footprint and foreign direct investment in Vietnam. Additionally, the present study validates the hypothesis of energy consumption-induced pollution emissions. The relationship between international tourism arrival and quality of the environment is statistically positive in both the short-run and long-run, as 1% in international tourism arrival worsens the quality of the environment by 0.45% and 0.4% in the short-run and long-run, respectively. Interestingly, water resource's major environmental issues that have plagued the Vietnam economy are inversely related to ecological footprint. Based on findings, Vietnamese policymakers may need to consider drafting appropriate environmental policies to tackle global warming while concurrently boosting economic development.Originality/valueThe present study focuses on Vietnam on the determinant of environmental quality measured by a broader indicator (ecological footprint). It is well-established that anthropogenic human activities are the root cause of environmental deterioration. The present study claims to distinct from previous literature in two-folds, namely, in terms of scope. Vietnam holds a very interesting energy mix and environmental dynamics, which has been ignored in the literature. Second, we argue to be the first based on our survey to explore the theme by incorporation of water resources and foreign direct investment intensification in the conventional pollution determinant model. This is in a bid to highlights the policy blueprint for the country (Vietnam), which is currently plagued with high pollution issues and the region at large.

Preface

2021 International Energy, Environment and Water Resources Conference held on March 26-28, 2021 in Dalian, China. We are honored to welcome all experts, researchers, professionals, innovators from academia and industry for the conference. The aim of this conference is to provide a forum for exchanges of research results, ideas and experience of application among researchers and practitioners involved with all aspects of Energy, Environment and Water Resources. The participants can develop the ideas and catch the tendency, and accelerate the theoretical research, technology development, application and innovation in the field of Energy, Environment and Water Resources.The outburst of COVID-19 affected the original plan seriously. In order to ensure the proceeding of conference, Conference Committee decided to change the form of conference from on-site to online. Although there were many inconveniences and differences in online meeting compared with offline conference, Conference Committee tried the best to restore and follow the original program as far as possible to overcome the impact of COVID-19.EEWRC online conference conducted in independent meeting rooms on Tencent Meeting, which had been registered in advance. 2 meeting rooms held simultaneously during the day of 27-28 April. Each room was equipped with a host and a co-host for assistance. In addition, there was one session chair to coordinate arrangements and supervise the progress of conference, and one computer technician who was responsible for equipment debugging. In total, 8 staffs were assigned to this conference during the whole conference.Given the inconvenience caused by frequent replacement of playback equipment or lagging network, conference committee decided to apply two types of oral presentation, video presentation and live presentation, for participants to choose.Types of oral presentation: Live presentation: 10-15mins; contact Conference Committee to test the devices in advance one day; Video presentation: a pre-recorded video presentation within 10-15 mins needed; send the video through email before 11:59pm on April 19.On April 23, Conference Committee counted the number of confirmed participants and divided them into 6 groups (corresponding to sessions) and informed authors of presentation sequence, conference ID, and the approaches to enter conference.English is the official language of the EEWRC 2021. We look forward to seeing you in Dalian for this exciting academic event!Dr. Hui Xia Shenyang Normal UniversityCommittees are available in the pdf

LEGAL RIGHTS OF INTERNATIONAL WATER RESOURCES: A CASE OF TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES RIVERS

This paper aims to examine Iraq’s rights, being the downstream country, towards the use of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the extent to which international water resources are protected under international law. Being the downstream country, projects constructed on the banks of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers had significantly impacted Iraq as less water flows into the country. The discussion in this paper outlines principles of the existing international conventions and protocols in this area by adopting a doctrinal legal research approach which has great significance to understand the relevant substantive law through the analysis of legal rules, court judgments, and statutes. The paper concludes that historically, Iraq had an acquired right, a right confirmed by the international rules and principles, to share the usage of water from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers with the upstream countries comprising of Turkey, Syria, and Iran. This paper suggests that all riparian countries of the Tigris and the Euphrates should abide by the rules of international law and recognize Iraq’s historical water ratios of these rivers based on the principle of the acquired right under international law.

Temporal and spatial variations in the terrestrial water storage across Central Asia based on multiple satellite datasets and global hydrological models

Arid regions of Central Asia have sensitive ecosystems that rely heavily on terrestrial water storage which is composed of surface water storage, soil moisture storage and groundwater storage. Therefore, we employed three Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite datasets and five global hydrological models (GHMs) to explore the terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes over arid regions of Central Asia from 2003 to 2014. We observed significantly decreasing water storage trends in the GRACE data, which were underestimated by the GHMs. After averaging the three GRACE satellite datasets, we found that the water storage was decreasing at a rate of −4.74 mm/year. Contrary to the prevailing declining water storage trends, northeastern Kazakhstan (KAZ), and southern Xinjiang increased their water storage over the same period. The GRACE data showed that Turkmenistan (TKM), Uzbekistan (UZB) and KAZ experienced the most severe water depletions, while Tajikistan (TJK) and northwest China (NW) experienced the least significant depletions. With respect to the major river and lake basins, the Aral Sea Basin exhibited the most serious water loss (-0.60 mm/month to −0.38 mm/month). The water storage positively correlates with the precipitation; and negatively correlates, with a three-month lag, with temperature and potential evapotranspiration (PET). Partial least square regression (PLSR) had the high capability in simulating and predicting the TWS. These results provide scientific evidence and guidance for local policy makers working toward sustainable water resource management, and the resolution of international water resource disputes among Central Asian countries.

Деятельность неправительственных международных организаций как предпосылка совершенствования законодательства об охране озера Байкал

The reported study aims to analyze the instruments adopted by international environmental non-governmental organizations in the sphere of protection and sustainable use of water resources. The structure of the World Water Council and its principal outcomes are reviewed. The practice of holding the World Water Forum is analyzed due to its rare coverage in Russian legal literature. Primary attention is paid to the outcomes of the Forum in the form of declarations. The activities of the International Water Resources Association are reviewed, particularly the outcomes of the 16th World Water Congress. The above mentioned international experience is extrapolated to the problems of Baikal’s legal protection. The documents adopted by the mentioned forums are proposed to be used as an inspiration and model for the legislative improvements in Baikal’s legal regime. For instance, the Ministerial Declaration “An urgent call for decisive action on water”, adopted at the 8th World Water Forum stresses the public attention on the issues of climate change and encourages the states to take into account this global problem in national water strategies. However, due to various reasons, the climate change issues are completely out of the legal discourse of Baikal protection. The Sustainability Declaration of the Forum has a significant potential for legislative and political improvements. Its 8th recommendation calls for business to value and mainstream water into its strategies, materiality and decision making process and share good practices in water management. Baikal’s business community’s commitment to the goals of sustainable development (in the form of Declaration) would be a useful politico-legal instrument within the lake’s legal regime. The outcomes of the 16th World Water Council in Cancun hosted by International Water Resources Association may also be a premise for the improvement of environmental policy and legislation in Baikal region. Among the most fruitful ideas of the forum is the acknowledgment of the pivotal role of scientific expertise in the environmental policy-making. The management system of Lake Baikal clearly needs an expert council, exercising advisory powers in respect to all the regulatory instruments concerning the ecosystem of the lake.

New Approaches for International Water Resources

As a body of rules and a basis for inter-State cooperative practice, international water law suffers from certain important shortcomings. Most significantly, it is characterised by substantive normative indeterminacy, and from related deficiencies in its associated procedural and institutional frameworks, which retard its progressive development and limit its capacity to respond to the looming challenges of the impending global water crisis. Though it has evolved progressively in recent years to incorporate a far-reaching obligation upon watercourse States to adopt an ecosystem approach to the management of shared watercourses, this very development highlights international water law’s systemic difficulty in accommodating water management techniques which are critically important to effective implementation of such an approach and, ultimately, to addressing the water crisis. Such techniques, with which international water law struggles, include multi-faceted benefit-sharing, adaptive management, and public and stakeholder participation. The latter two are considered essential for implementation of an ecosystem approach, while the former comprises a cooperative technique facilitated by an ecosystem approach, by means of which watercourse States might eliminate inefficiencies and ensure optimal utilisation of shared water resources. These problems illustrate the urgent imperative of continuing to develop and refine, if not completely reimagine, the rules of international water law.

La hidropolítica y las relaciones exteriores de China en el complejo hídrico del Himalaya; los casos de Nepal e India

Los diez sistemas de ríos principales del continente asiático nacen en el Himalaya, la gran mayoría, en la enorme meseta tibetana. China es uno de los países con más ríos transfronterizos en el mundo, solo superado por Rusia y Argentina. La torre de agua de Asia se encuentra en una posición que le confiere un enorme poder e influencia, y las decisiones que adopte en el campo de sus relaciones hidráulicas con el resto de países tiene un alcance regional, continental y, posiblemente, global. La gestión de sus 16 ríos transfronterizos puede afectar la disponibilidad de agua de muchos países río abajo, con afectación directa al acceso a los recursos hídricos de 14 países en el continente asiático y de casi tres billones de personas, es decir casi la mitad de la población mundial El objetivo del presente artículo es analizar el comportamiento hidráulico chino en el complejo del Himalaya, a partir de dos casos de estudio: las relaciones de China con Nepal e India. Se pretende así contribuir al debate sobre, por una parte, los factores explicativos del comportamiento hídrico de la potencia asiática, prestando especial atención a la importancia de la meseta tibetana y, por el otro, al debate académico sobre la estrategia china en relación con uno de los recursos más apreciados del planeta, el agua. China cuenta hoy en día con unas 90.000 infraestructuras hidráulicas, contando presas, diques y proyectos de desvío de agua, y sus intereses hídricos abarcan tanto ríos internos —que acusan la escasez y la sequía con más gravedad, como el Amarillo o el Yangtzé— como los ríos transfronterizos internacionales, lo que conlleva de inmediato una amenaza para los países con los que comparte estos ríos —como el Brahmaputra. El principal argumento es que la política china en el Himalaya es un eslabón más en el intento chino de consolidar su presencia política y estratégica en diferentes partes del mundo. Las relaciones hídricas chinas se deben analizar en el contexto de la política exterior del gigante asiático en la última década, marcada por su expansionismo, su cristalización como gran potencia mundial, y su estilo de política exterior a escala global El artículo se estructura de la siguiente forma. El primer apartado contiene el marco teórico y analítico del articulado, empezando por el paraguas conceptual que nos ofrece la hidropolítica para entender el comportamiento en términos hídricos de China en el espacio del Himalaya, en base a dos conceptos principales: hidrohegemonía e hidrodominación. El segundo apartado contiene una disección analítica del Himalaya como complejo hídrico y el estudio de los casos relevantes para entender el comportamiento de China en el sistema himalayo; Nepal e India. El análisis de los factores explicativos de la política hídrica china, a nivel endógeno y exógeno, así como la estrategia seguida por Pekín, sustentan el tercer apartado del documento. Las conclusiones y consideraciones finales cierran el presente artículo.

Aguas dulces entre Chile y Bolivia: el Silala en su laberinto

Las tensiones históricas entre Chile y Bolivia son un tema constante en la agenda de la política internacional de ambos países y por cierto de América del Sur. El 1 de octubre de 2018, la Corte Internacional de Justicia falló a favor de Chile en el caso de la demanda marítima y declaró que este país no tenía obligación alguna de negociar una salida soberana al mar para Bolivia, derivado de la pérdida de acceso a las costas y territorios tras la Guerra del Pacífico (1879–1883). Sin embargo, este no era el único pleito por aguas entre los dos países. Detrás de la demanda boliviana, se produjo un pleito sucesivo, pero esta vez, una demanda de Chile contra Bolivia el año 2016. Se trata de las aguas de unos manantiales en el altiplano andino a la altura de la ciudad de Antofagasta de Chile, conocidas con el nombre del Silala, aguas que surgen en Bolivia y que transitan hacia Chile. La investigación demuestra que el uso de las aguas dulces, y en particular las del Silala, acuífero que une a Chile y Bolivia en la zona del Departamento de Potosí y la Región de Antofagasta en Chile, trasciende la gobernanza del agua y se relaciona con el manejo de la crítica relación histórica entre Chile y Bolivia. El texto explora el origen del conflicto, las características de estos recursos compartidos, el rol de los organismos internacionales, la presencia de las tensiones y conflictos bilaterales durante el gobierno de Evo Morales, y las implicancias que estas aguas representan para ambos países en el área político–estratégica.