Home 
Topics Water Water Operations Partnerships Network of Asian River Basin Organizations
 | |
Network of Asian River Basin Organizations Workshop on Water Rights
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
In 2005, the Network of Asian River Basin Organizations (NARBO) began a series of workshops on Water Rights and Water Allocation. Member river basin organizations met at the first four of these workshops to
|
EVENT DETAILS
|
|||||||||||||||||
Twenty-eight (28) experts participated in the workshop to discuss the various aspects of water rights. The breakdown of participants is as follows:
| Indonesia | 6 | Asian Development Bank | 5 | |
| Lao PDR | 2 | International Water Management Institute | 1 | |
| Philippines | 5 | Japan Water Agency | 3 | |
| Sri Lanka | 2 | |||
| Thailand | 1 | |||
| Viet Nam | 3 |
Discussions about water rights often generate passionate arguments. More often than not, people take entrenched positions where logical discussions and sensible decisions get lost. In contrast, the discussions in the NARBO water rights workshops have been characterized by an open exchange of ideas and experiences that can help guide decision makers as they wrestle with the challenges of ensuring equitable and sustainable access to water for basic needs, livelihoods, and environment.
The discussions1 focused on the following:
Water Rights as Privilege
Water Rights are often confused as automatically leading to Water Fees. These topics need to be separated to ensure water rights for all. The South Africa case is a good model where, by committing to provide basic water needs as a right for everyone, including expected future generations, the poor are assured that they will have access to water. The task of allocating water for other uses is clarified.
Allocations for uses other than basic needs are made through water use rights for beneficial uses. It is these water use rights, mentioned a number of times during the workshops, that can be considered “a privilege to use.” A privilege may be withdrawn if it is not used as approved or if more beneficial uses are identified.
Stress on Basin Resources
A question that was raised during the discussions was “Are codified water rights necessary in every basin?” In deciding about whether water rights are necessary or not, the adage “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” can be a wise recommendation.
However, it is important to remember that situations can change very quickly. New abstractions and new discharges can change resource availability and quality dramatically. If the basic structure for water rights and water use allocations are not available and recognized, it is likely that the poor and vulnerable would be disproportionately affected by such changes.
This highlights the need to consider stresses on basin resources. Clearly, many basins in the region are under considerable stress and water shortages and water quality problems are becoming more widespread.
Considering Climate Change
In addition to the stresses being imposed by changing water use patterns, climate change may impose further changes and new risks that are little understood at present. Climate change should be taken into account in rethinking water allocations. Clear and logical water rights will help make those decisions on reallocation transparent and allow fair compensation for those that surrender user rights.
Often, the environment is the first loser in changing times. Human and economic needs can cloud commitments to the environment. A flat percentage of annual flow rates is not a sufficiently good measure of how to allocate water for environmental services. Allocations of water rights will be needed to protect environmental flows.
Participants came up with a number of reflections on the water rights issue and the impact of the workshop on their own river basin work.
| Countries | Organizations |
|
| © 2008 Asian Development Bank Privacy | Terms of Use |
 Top of page |
