Basin organization and members’ development agenda in the Global South

ABSTRACT

In Global South river basins, urbanization, population growth and demand for resources linked to economic growth pose multiple challenges, compounded by the crises of climate change. For Global South countries, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are opportunities to combine integrated strategies tackling their environmental sustainability and socioeconomic development issues. This article uses the Mekong River Commission and the development of hydropower by Lao PDR case to investigate the ability of River Basin Organizations to coordinate with Member States for consistent regional and national application of transboundary water cooperation best practices while answering both scales’ sustainable development agendas.

KEYWORDS:

• Transboundary water
• cooperation
• international water law
• river basin organization
• sustainable development
• Global South
• Mekong River Commission
• Lao PDR

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The author does not subscribe to the ‘Global South’ appellation. The term is used here in the absence of an alternative that reflects its convictions about ‘development’. It may at times be shortened to ‘the South’ or ‘Southern countries’. This also applies to the ‘Global North’, ‘the North’ or ‘Northern countries’.

2. The ‘equitable and reasonable use’ and ‘no harm’ are water-sharing principles, although non-state actors are mentioned in article 32 of the Watercourses Convention.

3. The list of RBOs is non-exhaustive.

4. Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar and Tunisia acceded to the convention but are not members of an international RBO. Paraguay, Venezuela and Yemen (not members of an RBO) have signed but not acceded to the convention.

5. Azerbaijan is a party to the convention but not an RBO.

6. The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation, the Economic Community of West African States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are among regional economic integration organizations whose member countries could benefit from the organizations’ adhesion to the global convention.

7. See paragraph 1 listing the three objectives of the framework.

8. The objective of GMS to develop power trade and all the necessary infrastructures is in line with its overall GMS corridor development strategy, taking into account the countries’ energy security and the impacts of climate change in the region.

9. According to article 5.A, projects on tributaries are ‘subject to the notification to the Joint Committee’, whereas article 5.B details several levels of regulations for the mainstream, depending on intra or inter-basin use and wet or dry season use. Mainstream hydropower plants fall in the category of inter-basin use and both wet and dry season use, ‘subject to prior consultation which aims at arriving at an agreement by the Joint Committee’.

10. The MRC Water Utilization Project also received funding from the Global Environment Fund via the World Bank.