Transboundary Waters
As one of the key issues this year, DWF is promoting the coorperation between nations sharing water of a transboundary nature. With water becoming an incresingly critical resource, conflicts of rights and access to, both in regards to development and food production, recieves increased attention. Maintaning good relations across borders and respect and tolarance between riparian nations is critical as the water levels and impact of climate change becomes ever more evident. Transboundary water cooperation is furthermore important for improving water management. Here DWF is engaged in projects within transboundary basins such as in the SADC area, in the Nile Basin and in the Mekong.
Currents Activies:
Third Workshop on Transboundary Water Cooperation, first announcement. Theme: "Sharing Benefits from Transboundary Water Management". 20-22 January 2010 in Vientiane, Laos. Read more
DWF Activities on Transboundary Issues:
Transboundary Water Cooperation Workshop Series are international workshops organized by Danish Water Forum and Technical Advisory Services, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
The first workshop arranged by Danish Water Forum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Technical Advisory Services was held in March 2007 in Copenhagen. The workshop highlighted stakeholder participation in transboundary water planning, management and decision making as well as national commitment to transboundary water cooperation. A Workshop Theme Paper with recommendations for future activities was developed at the workshop.
This second workshop on transboundary management was arranged at a time with sharp focus on climate change. Recommendations from this workshop could therfore be brought forward to other international events during the next year. Many advances have been made within transboundary water management, but several challenges within cooperation/governance remain: Climate change is also likely to aggravate variability, hydrological extremes and increase risks making transboundary cooperation even more critical. The second workshop had a focus on Water Cooperation and Climate Change in The Nile, SADC/Zambezi Basins and the Mekong and was held in Copenhagen on December 1-2, 2008.
Seminar during World Water Week in Stockholm, August 2009: "Transboundary Water Cooperation in the Nile, SADC/Zambezi Basin and the Mekong" The seminar was organised by Danish Water Forum (DWF), danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS) and DHI. The seminar addressed lessons learned and key challenges in transboundary water cooperation. The seminar seeked to identify good practices for basin management and increased national commitment. Also civil society participation, climate adaptation, human security was discussed and finally exploring economic opportunities. This was all based on presentations and discussions of results from the workshops and studies on lessons learned from the three basins but also others. The seminar discussed challenges common to all basins and identified how sharing of good practice and lessons learned could be further strengthened and expanded. The seminar also discussed how the Transboundary Water Cooperation initiated by DWF and Danida in Mekong, the Nile and SADC/Zambezi might be widened to cover other basins and include other partners.
The third workshop focussing on Sharing benefits from Transboundary Water Management was held on January 20-22, 2010 in Vientiane, Lao PDR.
UN Water Thematic Paper: "Transboundary Waters: Sharing Benefits, Sharing Responsibilities"
UN Water: Information about the UN Water Task Force about Transboundary Water
UNECE: Introduction to UNECE: "Convention on the
Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International
Lakes". The Convention is intended to strengthen national
measures for the protection and ecologically sound management of
transboundary surface waters and groundwaters. Under the Conventions
there are two protocols:
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The Protocol on Water and Health
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The Protocol on Civil Liability
Danish support to Transboundary Water Management:
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) -
Denmark provides support to the establishment of the first activities of
the sub-regional "Permanent Framework for Co-ordination and Monitoring
of Integrated Water Resources Management" (PFCM) created by the
ECOWAS Member
States and Mauritania. The 15 ECOWAS Member States are Benin, Burkina
Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. Read more
below:
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"Styrelsesnotits" (in Danish)
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Activity Report (in French)
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Report on Danida Project 2005 (in French)
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a partnership of the Nile riparian states led by the Council of Ministers of Water Affairs. The partnership has agreed to a shared vision, to "achieve sustained socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile basin water resources". To convert the vision into action the NBI has developed a strategic action program comprising two complementary programs, the shared vision program (SVP) and the subsidiary action program (SAP). The SVP is a series of basin-wide (grant-funded) projects seeking to build trust and capacity and to create an enabling environment for regional cooperation and investment. The SAP is a number of joint investment projects involvilg two or more states. Danida has so far mainly supported in developing the SVP project concerning Water Resources Planning and Management (WRPM). Danida has further assisted, in close cooperation with the World Bank and other bilateral donors, in establishing the Nile Basin Trust Fund (NBTF) as the initial funding mechanism for the SVP.
Danida supports the Mekong River Commission (MRC), established to promote and co-ordinate sustainable management and development of water and related resources for the countries' mutual benefit and the people's well-being by implementing strategic programmes and activities and providing scientific information and policy advice. The MRC member countries are Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam. MRC maintains regular dialogue with the two upper states of the Mekong River Basin, China and Myanmar.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an alliance with the aim of coordinating development aid in 13 countries in southern Africa: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Danida supports SADC Water Sector Coordinating Unit and has been involved in both national and regional water sector activities. See also SADC Water.