Hot disputes between nations over cross-border water have lately spouted like geysers. In January, President Donald Trump said he wanted to end agreements with Canada on sharing the Great Lakes. And after months of fraught discussions, he just settled with Mexico on allocations of river flows under a 1940s accord.
In recent days, India suspended a water-sharing treaty with Pakistan after an attack in disputed territory; their decadeslong agreement was obsolete anyway because of climate change and population changes. And next year, a 30-year pact on South Asia’s other major riparian system, the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin, will expire if not rapidly renegotiated.
Are these examples of contention and divergence over fresh water now the norm in the world?
“Contrary to popular belief,” stated the Stockholm International Water Institute, “water scarcity has so far tended to unleash cooperation rather than conflict.”
Today, over 600 treaties cover regional basins or aquifers. Some 120 organizations monitor compliance or mediate disputes. And most such treaties have been “long-lived and respected even when the parties fell out over other issues,” the institute noted.
Dialogue on water-sharing in tense times is more than a nod toward the universal need for a precious resource. It points to patience, cooperation, and collective decision-making. Extensive research by the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Elinor Ostrom identifies these attributes as near-universal, documenting evidence of resource-sharing in local communities from Nepal to Nigeria.
Collaboration between nations can enhance the trust needed for an agreement. For example, conflict in Mali’s Inner Niger Delta has been reduced by improved communication and systems of seasonal water access. Elsewhere in West Africa, three countries have supported a master plan for the Mékrou River basin. Albania and Montenegro jointly manage the Buna/Bojana Watershed. And in 2024, after more than a decade of negotiations, agreement by South Sudan put into effect a deal among Nile River Basin countries.
Population growth and variable weather patterns are increasing pressure on freshwater sources. Many existing treaties specify absolute cubic volumes. Times of scarcity may require recalibrating these as percentages of what’s available. Countries have many examples of cooperation to follow.
In a quote attributed to John F. Kennedy, the U.S. president said, “Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel Prizes – one for peace and one for science.”
The world’s record on water-sharing to date, though contentious at times, shows that goodwill and good research have, in fact, prevailed.
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