Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Treaty relating
to Cooperative
Development of
Water Resources of
the Columbia River
'Columbia River Treaty'
(USA and Canada) 1964
Permanent Engineering
Board
(50:50 members
from both countries)
reports annually to
BC Hydro and US Army
Corps of Engineers and
Bonneville Power
Cooperative development and operation of the
water resources of the Columbia River Basin for
the benefit of flood control and power.
Clarified rights and obligations between British
Columbia (BC) and Canadian government, allowed
sale of Canadian entitlement to downstream US
power benefits.
US paid Canada for benefits of flood control and
Canada was granted rights to divert water for
hydropower (Giordano and Wolf 2003).
Canada, USA
Benefit sharing: Unconditional storage for
flood control defined plus additional on-call
and one-half of US electric generation to
Canada
La Plata River Treaty
and bilateral and
trilateral partial
coalition agreements
1969
Intergovernmental
Coordinating Committee for
the la Plata Basin
Countries
Promote and coordinate joint management,
development and preservation of the basin.
Subsequent multilateral and bilateral treaties
outline the specifics of economic investment,
hydroelectric development and transportation
enhancement.
Led to significant economic gains from the treaty
arrangements for all five riparian states. But these
economic gains have also generated significant
externalities -
particularly, severe environmental
degradation (Gilman
et al.
2008).
Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Paraguay and
Uruguay
Requires open transportation and
communication along the river and its
tributaries
Prescribes cooperation in education, health,
and management of 'non-water' resources
(e.g., soil, forest, flora, and fauna)
Mekong River
Agreement 1975
Equality of right, not as equal shares of water but
equal rights to use water on basis of each economic
and social needs (Giordano and Wolf 2003).
Laos, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Thailand
Reasonable and equitable utilisation, not
to cause significant harm, cooperation
and information exchange, notification,
consultation and negotiation, peaceful
settlement of disputes (Rahaman 2009)
