Reframing the transboundary water discourse: Contextualized international law in practice

• Date: 01 November 2020
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12361
• Author: Patricia Wouters,Sergei Vinogradov

RECIEL. 2020;29:385–394.  

|

  385wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel

1 | INTRODUCTION

Shared freshwa ter resources affec t the health and wealth o f millions

around the worl d. Adequate quantitie s and qualities of water con -

tribute positi vely to the economic, envi ronmental and social we lfare

of human and enviro nmental populatio ns within and beyond na-

tional border s. Despite the clear n eed for effective t ransboundary

water cooperat ion, and the abundance of ru les and State practice in

this field, thi s goal remains elusive. Why is this , and how might it be

addressed? Co uld international law pr ovide fresh insights in to why

riparian natio ns fall short of succes sful transbounda ry water cooper-

ation? With a view to exp loring these questio ns more fully, this arti-

cle select s China as a case study. The count ry is particular ly relevant

given its abund ance of transbounda ry water basins and dea rth of

transboundary water agreements. China’s ‘upstream dilemma’1 pits

the considerable national development imperatives of the world’s

most populate d country against a si gnificant and vast a rray of down-

stream intere sts on river systems s erving more than 4 0% of the

global population.2

Some of the greate st rivers in the world or iginate in China –

the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong,

Yellow and Yangtze.3 Many of these su ffer from compromis ed

water security and degraded ecosystems.4 China and its burgeon-

ing population (over 1.4 billion) share diminishing freshwater re-

sources5 with 14 riparian nation s – Afghanistan, Bhu tan, India,

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North

Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam.6 The transbound-

 1The notion of th e ‘upstream dil emma’ is discusse d in P Wouters, H Che n and JE Nickum,

Transboundar y Water Cooperati on Principle s, Practice and P rospects for Ch ina and its

Neighbours (Routledge 20 18). See also JL Turner e t al, ‘China's Ups tream Advant age in

the Great Him alayan Watershe d’ (2013) 16 Asia Poli cy 11.

 2Statistic s Times, ‘Lis t of Asian Countr ies by Populati on’ <http://stati stics times.com/

demog raphi cs/asian -count ries-by-popul ation.php>.

 3China Water Ris k, ‘Geopolit ical Risks: Trans boundary R ivers’ (9 Februa ry 2012) <ht tp: //

www.china water risk.org/resou rces/analy sis-revie ws/geopo litic al-risks -trans bound

ary-river s/>.

 4Y Feng, D He and W Wan g, ‘Identif ying China’s Transbo undary Water R isks and

Vulnerabilities – A Multidisciplinary Analysis Using Hydrological Data and Legal/

Instituti onal Setting s’ in Wouters et al (n 1) 146 .

 5China Water Ris k, ‘No Water, No Grow th – Does Asia Have E nough Water to Deve lop?’

(21 Septembe r 2018) <http://www.china water risk.org/resou rces/analy sis-revie ws/

no-water -no-growt h-does-asia-have-enoug h-water -to-devel op/>. See also summary of

China’s domes tic and interna tional freshw aters in: R Kinna a nd A Rieu-Clar ke, The

Governance Regime of the Mekong River Basin: Can the Global Water Conventions Strengthen

the 1995 Mekong Agreement? (Brill 2017) 8–13; H Zhang an d M Li, ‘Thirst y China and its

Transboundar y Waters’ in H Zhan g and M Li (eds), China a nd Transboundar y Water Politics

in Asia (Routl edge 2018) 3, 3 and 5.

 6Y Su, ‘China’s Int ernational Wate r Relations’ in S Mc Caffrey, C Leb an d RT Denoon (eds),

Research Han dbook on Intern ational Water Law ( Edward Elgar 2019) 4 47; JE Nickum, ‘The

Upstream Su perpower: Ch ina’s Internatio nal Rivers’ in O Var is, AK Biswas an d C

Tortajada (eds) , Management of Transboundary Rivers and Lakes (Springer 2008) 227. See

also C Du and H Zho ng, ‘Study on Trans boundary Wat er Issues in Chin a’ in 2011

Internatio nal Symposium on Wa ter Resource and E nvironmenta l Protection (I nstitute of

Electric al and Electro nics Enginee rs 2011) 40.

Received: 9 Marc h 2020 

|

  Accepted: 9 July 202 0

DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12361

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Reframing the transboundary water discourse: Contextualized

international law in practice

Patricia Wouters  | Sergei Vinogradov

This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Crea t ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which pe rmits use, distr ibution and repro duction in any medi um,

provided the o riginal work is prop erly cited.

© 2020 The Autho rs. Review of Europea n, Comparative & Inter national Environm ental Law publishe d by Wiley Periodic als LLC

Correspondence

Emails: pkwouters@aol.com;

s.v.vinogradov@dundee.ac.uk

Abstract

Can international l aw provide new insights for bette r understanding tr ansboundary

water practice? Selec ting China as one of the most challenging cas e studies, the articl e

explores the possi ble elements of a reconceptualized ap proach to international freshwa-

ter management. This s tudy demonstrates how the legal d iscourse surrounding regional

transboundar y waters can be reframed usi ng the concept of contextualized intern ational

law to offer increased o pportunities for improved tr ansboundary water cooper ation.