10.1 Water Quantity Management and Water Allocation
133
southern United States or the Aral Sea basin, there are a number of negative examples
in the EU, too, that should caution decision-makers. These examples illustrate that
the highly sophisticated transboundary governance regime of the EU does not, on its
own, increase the cooperative behaviour of an upstream riparian when it comes to
releasing more water downstream. Take, for example, the best-known recent international legal conflict, the Gabˇ cíkovo-Nagymaros case, which in its current phase is
essentially a water allocation dispute. Upstream Slovakia and downstream Hungary
have not been able to implement the 1997 judgement of the International Court of
Justice that—in view of the equitable and reasonable utilisation principle—unambiguously calls for the release of more water by Slovakia into the joint section of the
River Danube.
30 Here, the accession of the two countries to the EU in 2004 and their
(unchallenged) compliance with the Water Framework Directive has not moved the
parties an inch closer to the resolution of this allocation issue (Baranyai and Bartus
2016).
In summary, the almost complete absence of water quantity and allocation considerations and rules from European water law is likely to become a critical hydropolitical gap in the EU if the effects of climate change with significant impacts on transboundary river flow variations and competition for shared water resources intensify.
10.2 Water Quality Protection
10.2.1 The Correlation Between Water Quality Management
and Hydro-political Resilience
Water quality has become a key feature of transboundary water governance schemes
relatively lately, despite its direct correlation with the health and well-being of
humans and ecosystems as well as its impact on social and economic development.
Yet, in many parts of the world water quality protection is still seen as a luxury
investment that only comes second to water quantity considerations. As such, water
pollution or other related ecological problems are considered to be less contentious
(“malign”) vis-à-vis other pressing questions of transboundary water management
such as allocation (Schmeier 2013). Accordingly, a great number of hydropolitical
assessments do not even consider water quality management in any significant way.
This is somewhat surprising in light of the fact that the highly complex political,
economic and topographic implications of pollution control elevate the issue among
the most difficult transboundary collective action problems worldwide (Giordano
2003).
30 Case Concerning the Gabˇ cíkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary v. Slovakia), Judgement, ICJ
Reports 1997, 7, para 140.
133
southern United States or the Aral Sea basin, there are a number of negative examples
in the EU, too, that should caution decision-makers. These examples illustrate that
the highly sophisticated transboundary governance regime of the EU does not, on its
own, increase the cooperative behaviour of an upstream riparian when it comes to
releasing more water downstream. Take, for example, the best-known recent international legal conflict, the Gabˇ cíkovo-Nagymaros case, which in its current phase is
essentially a water allocation dispute. Upstream Slovakia and downstream Hungary
have not been able to implement the 1997 judgement of the International Court of
Justice that—in view of the equitable and reasonable utilisation principle—unambiguously calls for the release of more water by Slovakia into the joint section of the
River Danube.
30 Here, the accession of the two countries to the EU in 2004 and their
(unchallenged) compliance with the Water Framework Directive has not moved the
parties an inch closer to the resolution of this allocation issue (Baranyai and Bartus
2016).
In summary, the almost complete absence of water quantity and allocation considerations and rules from European water law is likely to become a critical hydropolitical gap in the EU if the effects of climate change with significant impacts on transboundary river flow variations and competition for shared water resources intensify.
10.2 Water Quality Protection
10.2.1 The Correlation Between Water Quality Management
and Hydro-political Resilience
Water quality has become a key feature of transboundary water governance schemes
relatively lately, despite its direct correlation with the health and well-being of
humans and ecosystems as well as its impact on social and economic development.
Yet, in many parts of the world water quality protection is still seen as a luxury
investment that only comes second to water quantity considerations. As such, water
pollution or other related ecological problems are considered to be less contentious
(“malign”) vis-à-vis other pressing questions of transboundary water management
such as allocation (Schmeier 2013). Accordingly, a great number of hydropolitical
assessments do not even consider water quality management in any significant way.
This is somewhat surprising in light of the fact that the highly complex political,
economic and topographic implications of pollution control elevate the issue among
the most difficult transboundary collective action problems worldwide (Giordano
2003).
30 Case Concerning the Gabˇ cíkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary v. Slovakia), Judgement, ICJ
Reports 1997, 7, para 140.