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A Matter of Survival

Water Cooperation Quotient

A number of attempts have been made to measure transboundary cooperation over
the years.

The University of Oregon was a pioneer in this effort by making data on transboundary
water treaties available in the public domain. This database provides useful
information including the respective water shares of countries in every basin, legal
treaties, and some case studies.
The UNECE has been mandated to collect data on transboundary cooperation with
reference to compliance with SDG 6.5.2 from UN Member States. This work should
be completed by December 2017. Its scope will be determined by the number of “Mekong: a river rising”, 2015 The Guardian, http://bit.ly/2lk1c4u
countries voluntarily choosing to provide the requested information.

The Strategic Foresight Group, a think tank based in Mumbai, India studies the
relationship between transboundary water cooperation and peace in order to identify
a decision support tool that would enable riparian countries to measure the intensity
of cooperation. The Water Cooperation Quotient measures the dynamic interaction
between countries sharing freshwater resources in all of the 286 shared river basins
listed by the Global Environment Facility. There are 84 mechanisms of transboundary
interaction or cooperation managing 153 rivers. Out of this total, 49 institutions
governing 90 transboundary rivers promote active water cooperation.
There are only 8 mechanisms facilitating fully-fledged active water cooperation in 19
transboundary river basins, located in West Africa and Europe.

The Water Cooperation Quotient also reveals that countries follow different paths
to building cooperation that depend on the local environment. In North America,
Canada, Mexico and the United States have all established strong bi-national
commissions covering all the rivers shared by each pair of two countries. In Western
Europe, regional instruments such as the Water Framework Directive of the European
Union support cooperative efforts at the basin level. In West Africa, very effective river
basin organizations have been created in the Senegal, Gambia and Niger River basins.
The Water Cooperation Quotient provides options for different levels and institutional
forms of cooperation that the countries can adopt, according to their circumstances.

A parallel examination of water cooperation in 286 shared river basins in 148 countries
and the 22 countries at risk of war suggests that any two countries engaged in active
water cooperation do not go to war for any reason. Thus, measuring and promoting
water cooperation is required not only for the sustainable management of natural
resources, but also for peace and stability in the world.

Source: Strategic Foresight Group http://www.strategicforesight.com/publications_inner.php?id=43

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