The Right to Utilize the Waters of International Rivers

Abstract

The Development of an International River Seldom proceeds at the same pace in the states through which it flows. The River Nile affords a good illustration of this: Egypt has for a long time substantially utilized its waters for irrigation; the Sudan has so far made moderate use of them, but is now embarking on a programme of agricultural expansion; and the states farther upstream, such as Ethiopia, Tanganyika, and Uganda, which supply the waters for the river, have scarcely begun to make use of them. The same story can be told of many other rivers.This unequal development of a river can cause great political, economic, and legal difficulties. Sooner or later, the state which has been slow to develop the portion of the river in its territory will need more and more water for domestic and sanitary purposes, for agriculture, for hydro-electric power, for industry, and so forth. As long as it can satisfy its needs without making claims on the water on which other co-riparian states depend, there will be no quarrel; but it will be otherwise when it can no longer do so. Competition for the limited supply of water will then lead to conflict. The future economic growth of one state at the expense of others will often be involved; perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investment, as in the case of the Columbia River, or millions of lives, as in the case of the Indus, may be put in jeopardy.