Upreti, Trilochan, International Watercourses Law and Its Application ...

Introduction / 1 2 / International Watercourses Law and Its Application in South Asia1.1 Significance of WaterChapter- OneIntroductionWater is a key element for the existence of all kinds of life.Early civilisations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and Chinaemerged on the banks of different rivers. 1 Water also hasimportant implications for most religions of the world. 2 TheGanges, for example, is considered holy by millions of Hindus.Thus, not surprisingly, when Saint Narad met the great IndianKing, Yuddhistira, his greeting was directly related to water: "Ihope your realm has reservoirs that are large and full of water,located in different parts in the land, so that the agriculture doesnot depend on the caprice of the Rain-God". 3Water was equally important in the western world; twomillennia ago, the eminent Greek Philosopher, Pinder, said thatthe "best of all things is water". 4 Italian scholar Leonardo daVinci said "water is the driver of nature." 5 Life is impossiblewithout water, and it has been reported that the human bodyconsists of between 60 to 80% water by weight, depending1 D. A. Caponera (ed), The Law of International Water Resources,Rome: Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Legislative study No.23, 1980, p. 6.2 A. K. Biswas, "Water for Sustainable Development of South andSoutheast Asia in the Twenty First Century” in A. K. Biswas & T.Hashimoto, (eds), Water Resources Management Series 4: AsianInternational Waters: From Ganges -Brahmaputra to Mekong, OxfordUniversity, 1996, p. 5.3 Ibid.4 Ibid.5 Ibid.upon the individual. 6 Thus it is quite natural for states, theprincipal actors of international relations, 7 to wish to safeguardtheir interests in fresh waters from the potentially diverginginterests of other riparian states, and to reconcile their interests(insofar as this may be possible). In the present context ofburgeoning population sizes, 8 and increasing demand for scarcewater resources, if this problem is not properly identified,addressed and resolved, there is a strong possibility of conflictsthreatening international peace and security. 9It may be useful at this point to provide a brief overview of theavailability of water resources in its different forms. Thevolume of earth's water supply is approximately 326 millioncubic metres. Of this, 97.5% is salt water (with 71% of theearth's surface being covered by seawater) and 2.5% is freshwater (8 million cubic metres). Of this fresh water, 0.4% is onthe surface and in the atmosphere, 12.3% is underground, and87.3% is in the polar ice caps and in glaciers. 10 Freshwaterresources are an essential component of the earth's hydrosphereand an indispensable part of all terrestrial ecosystems. Thefreshwater environment is characterised by the hydrologicalcycle, 11 including floods and droughts, which in some regions6 S. C. McCaffrey, The Law of International Watercourses: Non-Navigational Uses, Oxford University, 2001, p. 3.7 Lotus Case in PCIJ series A/B vol. 3, p. 17 & the Corfu Channel Casein ICJ Reports 1949, p. 35.8 Supra note 6, p. 5, the population of the world in 1950 was 2.5 billion;it has doubled in less than forty years and the United Nations forecaststhat it could reach some 9 billion by 2050.9 V. Narayan, "‘Water’ the Oil of Next Century" TERI Newswire III,(19), New Delhi: October 1997, pp. 1-5.10 P. Wouters (ed), International Water Law: Selected Writings ofProfessor Charles B. Bourne, the Hague: Kluwer Law, 1997, p. 108.11 A. Dixit, Basic Water Science, Kathmandu: Nepal Water ConservationFoundation, 2002, pp. 2-20. It has been reported that water evaporatesfrom the sea, rivers, and streams, and also a large amount of waterenters the atmosphere by transpiration from plants. The same water