By India Water Foundation
This report presents the global status on transboundary cooperation and acceleration needed to achieve target 6.5 by 2030, based on the latest data on indicator 6.5.2. In the first reporting cycle held in 2017-2018, 107 out of 153 countries sharing transboundary waters responded to the invitation to report on SDG indicator 6.5.2 by UNECE and UNESCO. 38 out of 40 Parties responded to the request to report under the Water Convention. During the second reporting exercise held in 2020/2021, 129 out of 153 countries sharing transboundary waters responded to the invitation to report on SDG indicator 6.5.2. All Parties submitted their national reports under the Water Convention. The second report reflects upon the recommendations made in the first report and considers the further actions needed to accelerate progress on transboundary water cooperation, particularly in light of the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework and the United Nations Decade of Action. The report talks about why transboundary cooperation is important, SDG indicator 6.5.2 monitoring exercise and the role of custodian agencies, and progress made at global and regional levels and towards operational arrangements.
The report highlights the importance of transboundary cooperation and the disadvantages of not having it. It says ensuring water availability and the sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG 6) while maintaining healthy ecosystems requires countries to consider how they manage both the quantity and quality of waters that originate from or flow to, the territory of another country. It also addresses the crucial role it plays in climate change impacts. Without cooperation, there will be political instability and no sustainable development of a region. Also, a lack of cooperation runs the risk of unilateral adaptation measures affecting water resources and adaptation options within countries sharing a particular river, lake, or aquifer.
It further throws light on SDG indicator 6.5.2 monitoring process and the role of the custodian agencies. The SDG indicator 6.5.2 monitoring exercise has helped in enhancing the countries’ reporting capacity, address data gaps, and the actions required to address them. Countries have also reported positive experiences of how the SDG indicator 6.5.2 monitoring exercise has triggered both in-country and intercountry dialogues on transboundary water cooperation. The second chapter also highlights the role of custodian agencies and how they have helped countries in preparing better quality reports that are more substantiated and better reflect the status and coverage of operational arrangements.
The progress made at the global and regional levels is discussed in the third chapter. For instance, Europe and North America show the fullest coverage of operational arrangements, with 27 outof 42 countries reporting that operational arrangements cover 90 percent or more of their transboundary river and lake basin area. This is followed by sub-Saharan Africa, where 18 of 42 countries reported that 90 percent or more of their transboundary river and lake basin area is covered by operational arrangements. For Central, Eastern, Southern, and South-Eastern Asia combined, only six countries out of 15 have 90 percent or more of their basin area covered by operational arrangements, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean where only four out of 22 countries have 90 percent or more of their basin area covered by operational arrangements. Finally, in the North Africa and Western Asia region, only one out of 17 countries reported having 90 percent or more of its basin area covered by operational arrangements.
It also talks about the ways in accelerating the progress towards operational arrangements. The SDG indicator 6.5.2 monitoring exercisehas revealed progress both in terms of the adoption of around 20 arrangements between 2017 and 2020, and the reinvigoration of other arrangements to make them operational. In addition to producing the SDG indicator value data, the second SDG indicator 6.5.2 monitoring exercise has offered an important opportunity for countries to report on a lot of activities undertaken to advance transboundary water cooperation, and to show innovative ways in which they have been able to accelerate cooperation. For example, Cooperation between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on the Syr Darya, between Mozambique and Zimbabwe on the Buzi River Basin, and between Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa on the Stampriet Transboundary Aquifer highlights that sometimes countries can take relatively straight forward steps to trigger cooperation and accelerate progress towards ensuring that operational arrangements cover all their transboundary basins. Key components in support of these steps include financing, capacity development, political will, and datacollection and exchange. The United Nations and its partners have an important role to play in supporting this accelerated progress through the leveraging, mobilization, and coordination of expertise related to transboundary water cooperation.
At conclusion of the above chapters suggestions and a way forward is suggested. The next step will require –
- countries, custodian agencies, and partners to work together to improve both the quality and coverage of data, including by harmonizing data and including SDG indicator 6.5.2 activities in the work of regional and basin organizations.
- countries to continue to accede to and use these platforms, including the institutional framework of the Water Convention, to advance their cooperation based on fundamental principles of international law and existing good practices.
- coupling efforts and fostering synergies between these issues to raise the importance of transboundary water cooperation on the political agenda at the national, regional, and global levels. Sharing good practice and mainstreaming transboundary water issues into related sectors’ actions, policies and programs is one way of accelerating progress.
- embedding transboundary cooperation into national laws, strategies, and plans as a foundation for bilateral and multilateral negotiations and to strengthen the implementation of existing arrangements.
Report- Click Here to Download: Progress on Transboundary Water Cooperation – 2021
