The following essay by Nwamaka Chigozie Odili is a summary of her recently published monograph (under the same title), which appears in Vol. 3(1) 2018, pp. 1-98, of Brill Research Perspectives in International Water Law. Mrs Nwamaka Odili is a Legal Officer with Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja, Nigeria. She can be reached at amaka142 [at] yahoo.com.
West Africa has twenty-five shared watercourses but only six of them are governed by legal instruments. Yet, the region, like the rest of the world, is exposed to water-related stress due to the impacts of climate change, urbanization, and overpopulation. This position results in abundance of fresh water in some countries of the region and limited or scarce availability of the resource in others. The need for a regulatory framework for managing all the region’s transboundary watercourses, therefore, cannot be overemphasized. Although the principles of customary international law apply in all cases whether there are regulatory instruments or not, treaties create obligation that are needed to strengthen the international water law system. Global framework treaties like the UN Watercourses Convention and the UNECE Water Convention provide the needed support through universal norms ‘to shape the content of instruments adopted at the regional and basin level’ (Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, ‘Freshwater and International Law: the Interplay between Universal, Regional and Basin Perspectives’ (Paris, UNESCO, 2009) at 5).
Transboundary Watercourses in West Africa
Regulated
| Transboundary Watercourse | Riparian States |
|---|---|
| Niger River Basin | Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Cameroun, Guinea, Mali, Chad |
| Lake Chad Basin | Cameroun, Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, Niger, Libya |
| Volta River Basin | Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali |
| Senegal River Basin | Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania |
| Gambia River Basin | Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal |
| Koliba-Korubal River Basin | Guinea and Guinea Bissau |
Non-Regulated
| Transboundary Watercourse | Riparian States |
|---|---|
| Cross River Basin | Nigeria and Cameroon |
| Akpa Yafi River Basin | Nigeria and Cameroon |
| Queme River Basin | Nigeria and Benin |
| Tano River Basin | Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire |
| Komoe River Basin | Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Burkina Faso |
| Atui River Basin | Mauritania and West Sahara |
| Mono River Basin | Togo and Benin |
| Bia River Basin | Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire |
| Sassandra River Basin | Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire |
| Cavally River Basin | Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Liberia |
| Cestos River Basin | Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Liberia |
| St John River Basin | Liberia and Guinea |
| St. Paul River Basin | Liberia and Guinea |
| Loffa River Basin | Liberia and Guinea |
| Mana Morro River Basin | Liberia and Sierra Leone |
| Moa River Basin | Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea |
| Little Scarcies River Basin | Sierra Leone and Guinea |
| Great Scarcies River Basin | Sierra Leone and Guinea |
| Geba River Basin | Guinea Bissau, Guinea and Senegal |
Since adoption of the General Act of Berlin in 1885, which dealt, inter alia, with the Niger River, more agreements have been contracted for the management of some of the shared watercourses in West Africa, particularly in the post-colonial era. Hence, West Africa contributed through these agreements to the development of international water law prior to the adoption of the UN Watercourses Convention and the UNECE Water Conventions in the 1990s. Initial instruments dealt primarily with navigation, while later agreements addressed the need for co-operation and incorporated other principles of customary international water law. The two conventions, no doubt, have influenced this trend such that water regimes in the region improved over time. This raises the question: do riparian states in West Africa need to be parties to either or both water conventions to enhance management, sharing and protection of their shared watercourses?
The influence of the UN Watercourses Convention in the region is established because water regimes implemented after adoption of the UN Watercourses Convention reflect some of its substantive and procedural provisions. Moreover some countries in West Africa are parties to the Convention. On the other hand, influence of the UNECE Water Convention in the region is limited and its potential benefits have yet to be determined. Article 25 and 26 of the UNECE Water Convention were amended to allow non-UNECE states that are members of the United Nations to become parties to the Convention. However, its mandatory provisions regarding basin organization and compliance with its stringent requirements, details, and tasks necessitates significant foreseeable financial and technical resources, which countries in West Africa now lack.
Although most West Africa water instruments are flawed by loopholes and there is need to address the problems generated by unregulated shared watercourses in the region, West Africa nations do not need to be contracting parties to both the UN Watercourses Convention and the UNECE Water Convention. What West Africa needs is a treaty position that accommodates the reality of the management of its transboundary water resources. Adoption of global treaties by the states of West Africa is not sufficient because the universal law in those treaties needs to be complemented by regional or basin agreement for realistic implementation. The important issue is not which global convention the states belong to, but rather how strong and efficient transboundary water resources management in the region has grown over time. To achieve this goal and to further address major gaps and failings in transboundary water resources management in West Africa, states in the region could negotiate a region-based water treaty to reflect the needs and concerns of the region and supplement it with basin-specific treaties.
The entire article is available here.