Key Issues Freshwater Resources, Oceans, and Marine Resources

1.0 FRESH WATER RESOURCES

Water as a resource is under relentless pressure. Due to population growth, economic development, rapid urbanization, large-scale industrialization and environmental concerns water stress has emerged as a real threat. The scarcity of water for human and ecosystem uses and the deteriorating water quality leads to "water stress" and intense socio-political pressures. Many areas in the country are already under severe water stress. Any addition to the intensity of water stress in the existing water scarcity areas, or addition of new areas to water stressed list, will only further push the problem in to the realm of a disaster.

Although about three-fourth of earth is water, the estimated volume of freshwater our rivers, groundwater, snow and ice, is about 2.5% only, the rest being the sea / salt water. Most of the freshwater are either in the form of ice and permanent snow cover in Antarctic/Artic regions (about 69%) or is stored underground in the form of deep underground basins/aquifers, soil moistures etc (30%).

Total usable freshwater supply to ecosystem and humans from river system, lakes, wetlands, soil moisture and shallow groundwater is less than 1% of all freshwater and only 0.01% of all the WATER ON EARTH. As per WHO estimates only 0.007% of all water on earth is readily available for human world consumption. This indicates that Freshwater on earth is finite and also unevenly distributed.

How Freshwater Resources are affected?

Wherever it appears and whatever its form, every drop of the world's water is locked into the hydrological cycle. However, the speed of movement of water through different phases of the hydrological cycle varies considerably. The average time a drop of water stays in the atmosphere is about eight days and in a river about 16 days. But this time can run into centuries for a glacier and tens of thousands of years for water moving sluggishly through a deep aquifer. Though Water drops are continuously recycled, freshwater available in form of lakes and river storage (which is about 0.3% of all freshwater resources) are renewable.

Human actions modify the hydrological cycle and can seriously pollute available freshwater. Climate change also affects the hydrological cycle significantly thereby affecting freshwater production and its distribution. With the population growth, urbanisation and ever increasing demand on the finite amount of water for different uses like drinking water, industry, agriculture, hydropower and, increased pressure are mounting on our freshwater resources.

Importance and Need of Freshwater

No matter who we are, where we are, and what we do, we are all dependent on water. We need it every day, in so many ways. We need it to stay healthy, for growing food, vegetation, transportation, irrigation, industry and its sheer life giving properties.

However, despite the importance of Freshwater Resources in our lives and well-being, we are increasingly beginning to take this resource as being infinite, and for granted. In today's world, much water is wasted, used inefficiently and polluted through its abusive use. The per capita availability of freshwater is fast declining all over the world. If the present consumption pattern continued, two out of every three persons on earth will live in water stressed conditions- moderate or severe water shortages- by the year 2025 A.D.

In India, the per capita average annual freshwater availability has reduced from 5177 cubic meters from 1951 to about 1869 cubic meters in 2001 and is estimated to further come down to 1341 cubic meters in 2025 and 1140 cubic meters in 2050.

Water Facts

* 1.1 billion people lack access to save drinking water (1\6th of population) and 2.4 billion lack safe sanitation (40% of pop.)

* 6000 children die every day from diseases associated with unsafe water and sanitation and hygiene.

* More than 2.2 million die each year from disease associated with poor water and sanitation.

* Women and girls-most affected-lack sanitation facilities.

* Unsafe water and sanitation leads to 80% of all the diseases in the developing world.

* In developing countries 90% of waste water is discharged without treatment.

* Over pumping groundwater caused decline of water levels by tens of meters in many regions, forcing people to use low quality water for drinking.

* Loss of water through leakage, illegal hook-ups and waste is about 50% of water for drinking and 60% of water for irrigation in developing countries.

* Floods and drought – affect most part of the country.

* One flush of a western toilet uses as much water as the average person in the developing world uses for a whole day-washing, cooking, cleaning and drinking.

Freshwater eco-system have been severely degraded :half the world’s wet land lost and more than 20% known freshwater species extinct.

* During 1990s, about 835 million gained access to safe drinking water and about 784 million to sanitation facilities.

* Millennium Global Target-Halving people unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water and sanitation.

* Present global investment level-$70-80 billion per year to increase up to $180 b/year

Water Conservation.

Water conservation has three dimensions.

Water resources conservation - efficient management of rainwater through storage, allocation and transfer for use and preservation of the quality of the resource including the supporting ecosystems. Water use conservation - water supply and distribution with minimal losses and consumption through prevention of wastage. The efficient use of water through adoption of water saving technologies & cropping patterns.

While creating awareness, the main thrust of the program shall be "Water Conservation". Therefore the Water Conservation Campaign forms the most important component of the Year of the Freshwater observation program. Various target groups to be reached out, the likely participating agencies and mechanism proposed to be used for delivering the required message is as follows.

General Instruments

The Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, commonly referred to as the UN Watercourses Convention, is an international treaty, adopted by the United Nations on 21 May 1997, pertaining to the uses and conservation of all waters that cross international boundaries, including both surface and groundwater. "Mindful of increasing demands for water and the impact of human behaviour", the UN drafted the document to help conserve and manage water resources for present and future generations. From the time of its drafting, the Convention took more than 17 years to enter into force on 17 August 2014. With the treaty having been ratified by just 36 states, the majority of countries, especially the key ones, remain outside its scope. The convention, however, is regarded as an important step in establishing international law governing water.

In northern hemisphere autumn of 2008, the UN began reviewing a law proposed by the International Law Commission to serve similar purpose to the unratified document, but was considering adopting the proposal as guideline rather than immediately attempting to draft it into law.

1.1 SPECIFIC INSTRUMENTS BASED ON CONTINENTS

•AFRICA

•River Nile

• 1959 Agreement for the Full Utilization of the Nile Waters

The 1959 Nile Waters Agreement between the Sudan and Egypt for full control utilization of the Nile waters. This agreement included: The controversy on the quantity of average annual Nile flow was settled and agreed to be about 84 billion cubic meters measured at Aswan High Dam, in Egypt.

The Nile River is subject to political interactions. It is the world's longest river flowing 6,700 kilometres through ten countries in north-eastern Africa – Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt with varying climates.

Considering the basin area of the Nile, Sudan has the largest size (1.9 million km²) whereas, of the four major tributaries to the Nile, three originate from Ethiopia – the Blue Nile, Sobat and Atbara. The modern history of hydro politics in the Nile basin is very complex and has had wide ramifications both for regional and global developments.

•Congo River

•2000 SADC Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems

• BEARING in mind the progress with the development and codification of international water

• Law initiated by the Helsinki Rules and that the United Nations subsequently adopted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses.

• RECOGNISING the relevant provisions of Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on

• Environment and Development, the concepts of environmentally sound management, sustainable development and equitable utilisation of shared watercourses in the SADC Region.

• CONSIDERING the existing and emerging socio-economic development programmes in the SADC Region and their impact on the environment.

• DESIROUS of developing close co-operation for judicious, sustainable and co-ordinated utilisation of the resources of the shared watercourses in the SADC Region.

• CONVINCED of the need for co-ordinated and environmentally sound development of the resources of shared watercourses in the SADC Region in order to support sustainable socioeconomic development.

• RECOGNISING that there are as yet no regional conventions regulating common utilisation and management of the resources of shared watercourses in the SADC Region;

• MINDFUL of the existence of other Agreements in the SADC Region regarding the common utilisation of certain watercourses.

Article 2

Objective

The overall objective of this Protocol is to foster closer cooperation for judicious, sustainable and co-ordinated management, protection and utilisation of shared watercourses and advance the SADC agenda of regional integration and poverty alleviation. In order to achieve this objective, this Protocol seeks to:

a) Promote and facilitate the establishment of shared watercourse agreements and Shared

Watercourse Institutions for the management of shared watercourses;

b) Advance the sustainable, equitable and reasonable utilisation of the shared watercourses;

c) Promote a co-ordinated and integrated environmentally sound development and management of shared watercourses;

d) Promote the harmonisation and monitoring of legislation and policies for planning, development, conservation, protection of shared watercourses, and allocation of the resources thereof; and

e) Promote research and technology development, information exchange, capacity building, and the application of appropriate technologies in shared watercourses management.”

AMERICA

a) 1909 Treaty Relating to Boundary Waters

• Signed on 11th January 1909

• Basic document governing the two states between Canada and United States water issues focusing on the Great Lake.

• The treaty had already established the International Joint Commission

• Cover the issues of fishing rights, diversion and use of the shared waters, shipping and other transportation rights, building of dams and bridges, and concern for possible water pollution.

b) Treaty Amazonian Cooperation

• Richest area in the globe in diversity of vegetation, and the largest covered by tropical rain forest.

• Parties: Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.

• Natural resources: oil, coal, iron ore, manganese, gold, uranium, cassiterite and bauxite

• Concluded on July, 1978 and comprises of 28 articles

• Purpose: to promote the harmonious development equitable distribution of the benefits of the Amazon territory among the Amazonian

• Treaty allowed the parties to use the benefit from the Amazon in order to achieve their national economies as long the parties follows their Amazonian territories.

• Article I: of the treaty stated the agreement between the parties to preserve the environment of the Amazon and also rational utilization of the natural resources of those territories.

• Article V: since the Amazonian river has multiplicity functions in the development of the economic and social of the region, the parties need to ensure its achieving rational utilization of the hydro resources.

EUROPE

Danube River

• Danube River is the second longest river and located in Central and Eastern Europe

• It flows from Germany and touching the border of Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and

• Ukraine before draining into the Black Sea.

• Functions: -Source of drinking water in all the countries except Bulgaria.

-Industry: hydroelectric generation, industrial cooling and waste disposal.

- Fisheries as there are an important source of food

- Large tourist area

• Danube River Protection Convention contained 31 articles: ensure that surface waters and groundwater within the Danube River Basin are managed and used sustainably and equitably.

• Emphasized on: the water management, prevention measures to control hazardous resulting from accident such as flood and also measures to prevent the pollution from entering the Black Sea.

• Examples: Article II- the conservation, improvement and the rational use of surface and water ground in the catchment area as far as possible and Article III- need to be responsible for any activities on their boundaries and also that can cause the trans-boundary impacts.

ASIA

Indus River

Indus River, Tibetan and Sanskrit Sindhu, Sindhi Sindhu, or Mehran, great trans-Himalayan river of South Asia. It is one of the longest rivers in the world, with a length of some 2,000 miles (3,200 km). Its total drainage area is about 450,000 square miles (1,165,000 square km), of which 175,000 square miles (453,000 square km) lie in the ranges and foothills of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush, and the Karakoram Range; the rest is in the semiarid plains of Pakistan.

1960 us River Waters Treaty

Indus Waters Treaty, treaty, signed on September 19, 1960, between India and Pakistan and brokered by the World Bank. The treaty fixed and delimited the rights and obligations of both countries concerning the use of the waters of the Indus River system.

Ganges River

Ganges River, Hindi Ganga, Great River of the plains of the northern Indian subcontinent. Although officially as well as popularly called the Ganga in Hindi and in other Indian languages, internationally it is known by its conventional name, the Ganges. From time immemorial it has been the holy river of Hinduism. For most of its course it is a wide and sluggish stream, flowing through one of the most fertile and densely populated regions in the world. Despite its importance, its length of 1,560 miles (2,510 km) is relatively short compared with the other great rivers of Asia or of the world.

The Ganges treaty

Treaty between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh on Sharing of the Ganges Water at Farakka.

Mekong River

Mekong River, Cambodian Mékôngk, Laotian Mènam Khong, Thai Mae Nam Khong, Vietnamese Sông Tiên Giang, Chinese (Pinyin) Lancang Jiang or (Wade-Giles) Lan-ts’ang Chiang, river that is the longest river in Southeast Asia, the 7th longest in Asia, and the 12th longest in the world. It has a length of about 2,700 miles (4,350 km). Rising in southeastern Qinghai province, China, it flows through the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan province, after which it forms part of the international border between Myanmar (Burma) and Laos, as well as between Laos and Thailand.

3.1 1995 Mekong Agreement

Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin with an associated Protocol establishing the Mekong River Commission. Article 1 and Article 9 are on the freedom of navigation in Mekong River.

MIDDLE EAST

Jordan River Basin

The Jordan River headwaters (Hasbani, Banias and Dan) are fed by groundwater and seasonal surface runoff. The Lower Jordan River originally received its main inflow from the outlet of Lake Tiberias and the Yarmouk River, the largest tributary, as well as from several wadis and aquifers.

1994 Israel Jordan Peace Treaty

A peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, signed at the Wadi Araba Border Crossing on 26 October 1994. It followed the Washington Declaration of July 1994, which officially ended the state of war between the two countries. Article 6, not to harm each other's water resources, to provide mutual assistance during water shortage.

OCEAN AND MARINE RESOURCES

The ocean is one of Earth's most valuable natural resources. It provides food in the form of fish and shellfish—about 200 billion pounds are caught each year. It's used for transportation—both travel and shipping. It provides a treasured source of recreation for humans. It is mined for minerals (salt, sand, gravel, and some manganese, copper, nickel, iron, and cobalt can be found in the deep sea) and drilled for crude oil.

INSTRUMENTS

•UNCLOS (United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea)

•December 10, 1982

•Montego Bay, Jamaica

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international treaty which was adopted and signed in 1982. It replaced the four Geneva Conventions of April, 1958, which respectively concerned the territorial sea and the contiguous zone, the continental shelf, the high seas, fishing and conservation of living resources on the high seas.

The Convention has created three new institutions on the international scene:

– The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea,

– The International Seabed Authority,

– The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

PROTECTION OF THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

•State of Marine Environment

•All types of Pollution

•Pollution from Ships

•Pollution by Dumping of Wastes

•Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Atmospheric

Pollution

•Pollution from Sea-Bed Activities

State of Marine Environment

Up until 1980’s the main sources of the pollution in the ocean are coming from oil, persistent organic compounds, chemical substances and nuclear wastes. It is affected the several main region seas. For example, Baltic Sea located in the Northeast Atlantic. There are pollution loads and levels of persistent in terms of organic pollution such as industrial chemical pesticides and product combustion. But today, the most degradation environment coming from natural radioactive sources.

All types of Pollution

There are several pollution that polluted the rivers and ocean. There are i) Pollution from ships, ii) Pollution by dumping wastes, iii) Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Atmospheric Pollution, and lastly iv) Pollution from Sea-Bed Activities. In order to address the pollution there are many efforts undertaken in regional area. However, in the global level there is no other instrument apart from UNCLOS. In 1992, Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine of the North Atlantic or known as OSPAR Convention is designed to implement relevant framework rules of UNCLOS for the area of northeast Atlantic, North Sea and adjacent Artic.

i) Pollution from Ships

Pollution from ships is caused by the accidental discharges of dangerous pollutants usually caused by oil spilled from tanker. Oil spilled in the ocean can caused massive pollution to the marine environment.

For example, in the case of Showa Maru (1975) happened in Straits of Malacca. In January 1975, about 3,300 tonnes of crude oil were spilled when a Japanese super tanker, Showa Maru, ran aground off Pulau Sebarok. The ensuing oil spill polluted the waters around Sentosa and other offshore islands of Singapore. As the consequences, the owners and liability insurers eventually paid S$3.8 million in claims to Singapore, S$2.9 million to Indonesia and S$1.3 million to Malaysia (Kiong & Saparudin, 2010). Thus, the pollution from ships can threaten the ecosystem of marine environment in the ocean.

ii) Pollution by Dumping wastes

Link to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQTUWK7CM-Y

Among all sorts of activities that pollute the ocean, dumping of garbage and other waste materials stands first in the list. Dumping involves depositing all the waste materials from factories and industries, tankers and ships and sewerage waste materials into the oceans and seas. Certain industrial wastage also includes radioactive materials.

The 1972 London Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by the Dumping of Waste (later then changed to 1996 London Protocol) established the first comprehensive regime against the dumping wastes at the global level with detailed rules. The state parties to the Protocol are required to apply a ‘precautionary approach’ to environmental protection against dumping of wastes in implementing this Protocol into account the polluter pays principle.

iii) Pollution from Land-Based Sources

Link to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcweQNKan_k

The pollution from land-based sources is caused by wastes from industrial, domestic and agricultural sources as run off from the drain to the rivers and ocean.

iv) Pollution from Sea-Bed activities

Pollution from sea-bed activities are caused by the activities such as drilling, dredging, excavation, construction and operations of maintenance of installations and pipeline. Under Article 208 (1) and (2) UNCLOS, coastal states are obliged to prevent, reduce and control marine environmental problem in connection of sea-bed activities. The activities can be carried out within their own boundaries as long it is not converging the sea-bed. This is because sea-bed and ocean floor is beyond the limits of any national jurisdiction and the resources are common heritage of mankind.

The International Sea-Bed Authority (ISA) is empowered under Article 145 UNCLOS to adopt the rules, regulations and procedures these kinds of activities in order to protect the environment.

2.0 CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF MARINE LIVING RESOURCES

•State of the Marine Living Resources

•Fish

•Mammals

CASES

•Indonesia-Tianyar’s reefs

•Bangladesh-Irrawaddy Dolphin

•Japan-Atlantic bluefin Tuna

ACT To provide for the conservation of the marine ecosystem, the long-term sustainable utilisation of marine living resources and the orderly access to exploitation, utilisation and protection of certain marine living resources; and for these purposes to provide for the exercise of control over marine living resources and the orderly access to exploitation, utilisation and protection of certain marine living resources; and for these purposes to provide for the exercise of control over marine living resources in a fair and equitable manner to the benefit of all the citizens

Fish

The freedom to fish the high seas and the need for restraint in exploitation must be proper balance. UNCLOSE tries to balance the utilization interests of fishing states and the state community’s interests in conserving marine fauna.

Mammals

Article 65 UNCLOS does not itself prohibit the taking of marine mammals or whaling, but allows coastal states and international organizations to do so. However, it requires states to co-operate with a view to conserving marine mammals and in the case of cetaceans, to work through the appropriate international organization.

CASES

1. Indonesia-Tianyar’s reefs

Indonesia-Tianyar’s reefs, Indonesia local government in Bali try to recovering the coral and reefs after being destroyed by the tourist in a peak season.

2) Irrawardy Dolphin

This species of dolphin is in endangered due to the illegal fishing activities in Bangladesh. This is the smallest species of dolphin on Earth.

3) Japanese Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Due to the high demand in food market, this species of tuna is in endangered.