Posted on 01 October
2009 - New York: Spain late last month boosted
efforts to bring into effect an international
treaty to share and protect rivers and lakes
crossing or forming international borders,
telling the United Nations General Assembly
it was committed to jointly addressing issues
of security, development and protection
of the environment.
The International Convention
on the Non-Navigational Use of International
Watercourses (UN Watercourses Convention),
drew the support of an overwhelming majority
of nations when passed by the UN in 1997
as the framework for resolving water disputes
and promoting cooperation on water management
between States.
But, even as the world
grew more anxious about dwindling water
supplies and the growing impacts of climate
change, the treaty languished for more than
a decade well short of the 35 ratifications
needed for it to come into effect. Spain
becomes the 18th nation to ratify the convention.
“Spain taking the ratifications
for the UN Watercourses Convention more
than half way is tremendous news for a world
worried about water,” said WWF Director
General James Leape.
“This convention is
not a dry legal instrument but the basis
for us to share limited water resources
and protect the vital human and natural
assets of rivers, lakes and underground
water.”
For the past two years,
WWF has taken a leading role in a campaign
to have the UN Watercourse Convention ratified,
arguing it is a vital step in adaptation
to climate change. Changes in rainfall patterns
and freshwater availability will be for
many people the most severe and immediate
impacts of climate climate change.
Half the world’s land
surface is drained by international waterways
containing more than two thirds of global
freshwater flows. Three quarters of the
world’s countries face potential disputes
with neighbours over shared rivers, lakes,
wetlands or aquifers.
Spain, one of Europe’s
largest water users, is no stranger to international
water agreements, concluding the Albufeira
Convention on river management with Portugal
in 1998. It is also a party to the European
Water Framework Directive but, like other
Mediterranean nations such as Italy and
Greece is experiencing difficulties in implementing
the directive.
WWF-Spain welcomed the
ratification, urging Prime Minister José
Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to implement
key measures with Portugal, including implementing
River Basin Management Plans on shared rivers.
“A sufficient supply
of water in Portugal is essential for the
good ecological status of the degraded estuaries
of the Guadiana and Tagus rivers which are
affected by overexploitation of its water
resources,” said Enrique Segovia, WWF-Spain
Director of Conservation.
“The Tagus River, for
instance, suffers several water transfers
towards the Upper Guadiana and Eastern Spain
and is facing the threat of a new water
transfer of the Tagus river before the Portuguese
border.”
WWF-Spain is hoping
that the Spanish Government will use its
2010 EU Presidency to promote ratification
of the UN Water Courses Convention in addition
to seeing it as an impetus to improve its
performance in water management at home.
“In the past year, Tunisia
and Spain have ratified the UN Watercourses
Convention and we have received indications
from other nations that they are working
towards ratification,” said Flavia Loures,
who heads WWF’s global initiative to have
the convention and other related agreements
brought into effect.
“We are really getting
the sense there is some momentum building.”
