A comparative review of contemporary water resources legislation: trends, developments and an agenda for reform

Abstract

Key trends in water legislation include: attraction of water resources into the public domain; limitations on governmental authority to allocate water resources; controlled trading of water rights; the "greening" of water laws; capturing the land-water connection; and ensuring user participation in decision making and implementation. Hence the water law reform agenda is likely to be preoccupied with reconciling tenure security with risk and uncertainty; pursuing equitable resource allocation efficiency gains; raising the environment's profile in water resources allocation; rekindling the connection between water resources management and land use regulations; empowering users; and mapping the interface between customary and statutory water allocation.

Challenges to Water Security along the “Emerald Coast”: A Political Ecology of Local Water Governance in Nicaragua

“…Effective water management is integral to water security and depends upon supportive legal and institutional frameworks [40,41]. In recent decades, water policy reforms have pervaded large portions of the Global South in an effort to secure water for citizens [42][43][44][45][46][47].…”

Does Article 6 (Factors Relevant to Equitable and Reasonable Utilization) in the UN Watercourses Convention misdirect riparian countries?

“…The UNWC may exhibit a nascent ecological agenda, but it has not kept up with a contemporary "greening" of water law (Burchi, 2012). Both human and environmental rights to water could be bundled together, and indeed in the model they were addressed by circumscribing a portion of "shared" environmental flows to be excluded from the annual volume of water for allocation.…”

Groundwater Governance: The Role of Legal Frameworks at the Local and National Level—Established Practice and Emerging Trends

“…Others, e.g., Namibia (Water Management Act, 2013), place the government under a duty to have regard to customary rights and practices when considering applications for a borehole license or a license to abstract water). Unfortunately, a large number of water laws protect customary water rights but do not provide the necessary details on the interface between customary and statutory rights, thereby creating legal uncertainty as to their de facto status and protection [17].…”

“…Formal water legislation might provide for the recognition of customary water rights, which is an emerging trend reflected in recent water legislation from countries as diverse as Bhutan, Namibia, Peru, Tanzania, and Zambia [15,16]. States resort to a variety of approaches [17]. Mozambique (Water Licensing Regulations, 2007), for instance, grants priority of allocation to customary water rights.…”