An introduction...

In this first blog post my aim is to introduce the broad topic of this blog and narrow its scope such that the following posts are more concise and focussed.

Approximately 40% of the world's population live within basins that expand over 2 or more countries (UN-Water, 2015). This figure could be considered modest when compared to the estimation that 90% of all Africa's surface freshwater resources are located in river basins consisting of two or more countries (UNDP, 2006). This raises huge concerns around how these resources are divided equally between states and extracted sustainability, in a continent where climate change and population growth are likely to exacerbate existing issues (Goulden, et al., 2009).

The contentious aspects of transboundary water resources, how they are being managed and by whom are the main motivation for this topic choice. It must be highlighted that there is vast literature that exists covering many different aspects of this topic. In this blog, I will focus on one water resource (surface water) in two different basins (TBA) to ensure a focussed outlook on the capacity for cooperation instead of conflict is formed. The kinds of questions I will be asking are:

• Are existing bilateral and multilateral agreements on fair use of water resources doing enough to prevent conflict?
• Is the optimism of academics such as Wolf (1998) claiming the costs of war and benefits of cooperation mean the latter is the inevitable result of issues around equitable and sustainable resource consumption?
• How do the two characterisations of riparian debates: territorial sovereignty and riverine integrity, fit the narratives of individual countries in the two basins.
• Whom is most important/has the most potential to act in resolving current issues and future ones induced by population growth, climate change and other factors.

Whilst this is not a complete list, it gives some insight into how I shall structure my blog posts over the coming weeks. In preparation and in brainstorming ideas for how to structure my blog, I read a very comprehensive and broad paper by Goulden et al. (2009) which reviewed literature surrounding the limits barriers and opportunities for adaption to climate change in international river basins in Africa. This article highlighted the broadness and the complexity of the issue, even down to the definitions of 'cooperation' and 'conflict'. Discussing aspects like these are out of the scope of this blog, however, the article, whilst being overly focussed on rather speculative estimations of climate change impacts on already speculative estimations of water stress and availability, provides a sound basis to further narrow down an aspect or area of interest in this debate.

Climate change is not my primary focus for this blog, I justify this on the basis that there is a lack of adaptability to current water resource sharing requirements and I believe looking at fixes to the contemporary issues interests me more than merely speculating about conflict/cohesion many decades into the future. 

My personal approach, before I jump into this project is one of caution, for both the alarmists and the optimists. I believe that currently there are no general grounds to swing one way or the other and as with most political/social/physical aspects of Africa, differing time space actors and institutions involved creates huge heterogeneity between basins. Through the lens of my two basin examples, I wish to compare and contrast their experiences and look at current ways that issues of sharing are being dealt with. By the end of this string of blogs, I hope to be able to reflect on my initial opinions and see if they have been reinforced or altered by my findings.

My following post shall introduce the two basins I wish to investigate.