| Regulations & policies
Schmeier explains that as the riparian countries
are focused on the economic benefits of existing and new dams, ZAMCOM could play a crucial role in ensuring that dams are being built in effective locations. However, she warns that unless managed in a more sustainable and coordinated manner by ZAMCOM, the dam impacts and their distribution across riparian states are “likely to become a concern”. The case of the Zambezi River Basin highlights “an
interesting constellation” with one basin organisation (the ZRA) dedicated to developing dams for only two of the eight riparian countries, while the other basin organisation (ZAMCOM) aims to manage the entire basin in an integrated manner, trying to prevent and mitigate the potential negative effects of dams and any associated conflicts. “This divergence in interests,” Schmeier says, “is yet to be reconciled.”
Senegal River Basin The Senegal River Basin is described as providing “interesting” cooperative insights, having always been focused on the development and management of dams for economic benefits. In 1972 the three lower basin countries, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, created the Organization pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Sénégal (OMVS), with Guinea, the most upstream state, joining in 2006.
Although the OMVS has been “relatively successful” in building and maintaining commitment to regional cooperation, with a focus on joint water resources development, Schmeier says that the generated benefits have “lagged behind expectations”. These are distributed unevenly across populations, and possibly across the countries too. “The need to further mitigate environmental and social impacts and engage in more integrated basin management to ensure long-term sustainability might lead upstream states to question institutionalised cooperation even more,” Schmeier adds. Therefore, she concludes, the OMVS is at a
crossroads and will need to continue addressing challenges by developing and implementing additional legal and institutional mechanisms. These must be able to deal with the impacts of dams on the basin’s environment and its people, while balancing interests of riparian states and ensuring long-term commitment to cooperation.
Ongoing dialogue International water law principles do provide an
important framework that can guide states’ behaviour
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in the development of dams on transboundary rivers, but this also requires basin-specific legal, policy and technical mechanisms that actually implement broader principles and related commitments.
Indeed, the implementation of these mechanisms can also be challenged by design flaws, their implementation, and by the willingness of riparian states to actually put them into action. Even if a comprehensive set of mechanisms for addressing dam impacts and preventing or mitigating dam- related conflicts is in place and indeed implemented, challenges can (re-)emerge. On-going dialogue through basin organisations is crucial for long-term conflict prevention, Schmeier states. Indeed, the existence of institutionalised cooperation (specifically with regards to dams) “is in itself already an important prerequisite for conflict management as it tends to prevent the escalation of conflicts”.
In conclusion, looking globally, institutionalised cooperation mechanisms are said to be lacking. However in those (albeit rather few) basins where they do exist, they can prevent and mitigate conflict risks. Due to these benefits, Schmeier calls for the promotion and strengthening of such mechanisms to help manage the shared water resources of transboundary river basins.
Above left: The Kariba Dam on the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Ongoing co-operation between the two countries led to development of the project during the 1950s
Above middle: Hydropower plant in northern Laos
Above right: View of the Mekong River Basin. There isn’t thought to be another basin organisation that has conducted as much work on dams as the Mekong River Commission
Below: Map of dams in the Senegal River Basin Copyright: Transboundary Freshwater Diplomacy Database
Eastern Basin
Western Basin
Senegal The Gambia Legend
Populated Dams Existing Dams Proposed Dams Senegal Basin Rivers Senegal River Basin
Guinea
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