Danube Watch 2/2016 - Learning from Danube cooperation for transboundary water management
Learning from Danube cooperation for transboundary water management
The ICPDR’s experience in river basin management helps GIZ support transboundary river and lake basins around the world to manage their shared water resources cooperatively and sustainably.
By partnering with the ICPDR to share its experiences in river basin management at events such as workshops in Bangkok in 2013 and 2014, GIZ is strengthening the dialogue between basins and supporting cooperative management of transboundary water resources.
© Susanne Schmeier, GIZ
Transboundary river and lake basins cover almost half the earth’s land area and are home to nearly half the world’s population. Therefore, the cooperative and integrated management of transboundary waters is crucial for the sustainable development of communities, countries and even entire regions. At the same time, such cooperative management faces a number of challenges, ranging from unilateral development considerations and related conflicts between countries, to overexploitation and insufficient water infrastructure as well as the consequences of climate change. Therefore, many countries – including Germany – have decided not only to engage in the cooperative management of river basins they share with their neighbours, but also to support joint management efforts in other parts of the world.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), on behalf of the German Government and other funding partners, currently supports close to 20 transboundary river and lake basins around the world to manage their shared water resources cooperatively and sustainably. With 20 years of experience, GIZ supports activities to negotiate shared water resources, establish legal and institutional bases for long-term cooperation (especially in the form of international treaties and river basin organisations as well as through harmonising water laws and policies), develop planning capabilities for water resources, develop and implement river basin management plans or to strengthen capacities to adapt to climate change.
Spotlight on the Danube River Basin. In the context of its work, GIZ has increasingly seen a keen interest from riparian states in the Danube River Basin, at both the political and the technical level. In fact, in many basins around the world, water managers and politicians strive to replicate the Danube experience. The inspiration is both the ICPDR itself – as a model river basin organisation with its effective structure and its well-established links to member states – and the ICPDR’s work ensuring the cooperative and sustainable management of the Danube River Basin.
GIZ has therefore cooperated with the ICPDR on a number of projects, in the hopes of transferring Danube experiences and knowledge to other basins around the world. The ICPDR has already been involved in two GIZ projects on sustainable water management in 2016. A workshop held in June 2016 brought together African river basin organisations supported by GIZ and the ICPDR. The workshop focused on river basin management and planning, with a particular focus on the management cycle and the development, implementation and monitoring of river basin management plans.
The Danube River Basin Management Plan provided an insightful example for representatives of African institutions – particularly in the way the different member states and respective stakeholders contributed to the drafting of the plan, in how implementation of the plan is financed at different levels and how it is monitored over time. The ICPDR also benefited from discussions about experiences in other basins – such as under drought conditions or with regards to integrating newly emerging issues into existing cooperation structures – thus ensuring true there is mutual learning between different basins.
Helping develop a framework for national management. The Danube experience is also relevant for water resources management at the national level – especially for countries, such as Iran, with a strong federal system that face challenges managing and developing water resources between provinces. Iran has therefore, in the context of its re-integration into the international community, asked for the support of the German government in developing a sustainable water resources management framework.
Iran struggles with various water resources and river basin management challenges – from severe water shortages because of inadequate legal and governance arrangements, to insufficient water infrastructure development due to a lack of dispute-resolution mechanisms addressing conflicting interests in water use. To share German and European experiences in river basin management with Iran, in March 2016, ICPDR Executive Secretary Ivan Zavadsky participated in a workshop organised jointly by GIZ – on behalf of the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Building – and the Iranian Ministry of Energy.
There was great interest in the Danube River Basin from Iranian officials – both from the ministry and other agencies, including the Iranian National Water Resources Management Company (the agency charged by the government with managing water resources) or the Iranian Farmers’ Association. In particular, they appreciated learning about the Danube experience of bringing differing water uses and interest groups together to ensure mutually beneficial resource management as well as the lessons learned on river basin planning.
Foundation for future cooperation. GIZ is eager to further strengthen cooperation with the ICPDR and the Danube River Basin based on these and earlier joint activities, including workshops in 2013 and 2014 in Bangkok, when the ICPDR shared its experience of setting up and developing a functioning river basin organisation and an efficient secretariat with the Mekong River Commission and other organisations from Asia and Africa.
Presenting the Danube experience can not only provide important insights to water managers and politicians in various basins around the world, but also strengthen dialogue between basins and their riparian states thus fostering exchange and mutual learning for all – which is at the core of GIZ’s approach and a prerequisite for sustainable development.
For more information on the GIZ’s transboundary water management work, please visit:
Transboundary water resources management
