Governance Mechanisms to Address Flow Variability in Water Treaties Alena Drieschova, Mark Giordano and Itay Fischhendler Living with climate change February 2008, London

 Water treaties must be adaptable through being flexible  No knowledge on the available flexibility mechanisms and the frequency of their use Motivation for Research  Adaptive mechanisms have political and transaction costs  Flexibility can: adapt regimes to new conditions while maintaining the existing treaties reduce sovereignty costs

allocation mechanisms The Available Adaptive Governance Mechanisms prioritizationprinciples for allocations consultation indirect allocation mixed flow percentage fixed allocation direct allocation

Resource Change technology transfer joint action infrastructure to change supply mutual assistance

Broaden Cooperation hydropower generation groundwater water quality non-water linkages

Formalized Communication consultation as conflict resolution data exchange arbitration joint institutions joint action

Methodology  A content analysis of available agreements signed since 1980 was undertaken  Only treaties concerning water as a scarce or consumable resource, or an ecosystem to be improved are included in the analysis  The Trans-boundary Freshwater Dispute Database was used as the database  A total of 50 basin specific agreements were left for analysis

Allocation Mechanisms

Resource Change Mechanisms Infrastructure to change supply Joint actionMutual assistance Technology transfer % of agreements

Non-water linkages Hydropower- generation GroundwaterWater quality % of agreements Broadened Cooperation

Joint institutions Joint action Consolation as conflict resolution Data exchange % of agreements Formalized Communication Arbitration

Voluntary Inflexible Flexible Binding Fixed Allocation (20) Infrastructure Changing Supply (14) Arbitration (42) Flow Percentage (6) Principles of Allocation (60) Consultations as Conflict Resolution (90) Broadening of Cooperation (74) I IIIV III Indirect Allocation (48) Data Exchange (86) Technology Transfer (42) Mutual Assistance (14) Governance Strategies to Address Flow Variability

 There are barriers to the use of “ideal” management  A trade-off between flexibility and enforceability  Flexibility is favoured over enforceability - ample ambiguity in water treaties as ambiguity increases flexibility Interpretations of the Results

 Flow variability is governed by using a variety of mechanisms: Conclusions  Most mechanisms use less direct approaches that create open-ended rules for regulating water  An open-ended approach may allow addressing variability while accommodating the sovereignty and power concerns Some allow changing the rules of the game, while others enhance the capacity to absorb shocks Some are based on high flexibility while others are based on high enforceability