TRANSBOUNDARY AQUIFERS: DO INTERNATIONAL BORDERS SERVE AS POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE FLOW BOUNDARIES?

There is increasing concern over the potential for conflict over international waters, and a substantial body of research has already been produced on transboundary waters, transboundary water law, and mitigation of transboundary water conflict. However, this research has focused almost exclusively on surface water supplies. Groundwater too flows across geopolitical boundaries, and conflicts over groundwater water quantity and quality are likely to escalate as the resource is increasingly used to meet domestic, agricultural and industrial demand, the interconnection between ground and surface supplies is better understood, and the role of groundwater in the maintenance of ecosystem services is further studied.

At present, however, transboundary aquifers still seem to be poorly understood by policy makers and ignored in international water diplomacy. Over 3,600 water-related treaties exist between riparian countries in international river basins. Of the approximately 400 treaties related to transboundary freshwater, only 109 dealt in any substantive way with groundwater.

Because groundwater management in the international arena is in its infancy, this paper builds upon the analysis of transboundary river basin agreements. Transboundary aquifer agreements should be developed when resources are threatened because of their actual or perceived intensive use. What are the lessons that nations can learn for the sound management of their transboundary aquifers? History has shown that institutional capacity has a tendency to make international borders become zones of contact as opposed to zones of exclusion.