unece convention&groundwater paris
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Dr. Annukka LipponenUNECE Water Convention
Selected activities under the UNECEWater Convention and possible cooperation in the
GEF Syr Darya groundwater project
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
UNECE/Helsinki Water Convention (signed in 1992)
• Entered into force in 1996• Protocols: Water and Health, Civil
Liability• Amended in 2003 to allow
accession to countries beyond pan-Europe
• Amendment entered into force on 6 Feb.2013 => countries outside ECE expected to be able to accede 2014-
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Diverse activities to support countries
• Projects to support countries in transboundary monitoring cooperation, negotiating agreements, setting up joint bodies, developing the legal basis and policy
• Assessments
• Guidelines and other soft-law instruments (e.g. Model Provisions on Transboundary Groundwaters
• Trainings and capacity building activities, e.g. UNECE-UNESCO-UNDP-OSCE workshop on legal, institutional & technical issues on transboundary groundwaters (Almaty, 2012)
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
>140 rivers, 25 lakes, about 200 groundwaters and 25 Ramsar Sites/wetlands of transboundary importance coveredEU, South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central AsiaInformation collected:•Inventory•Location, extent and delineations•Quantity and quality status •Pressure factors (abstractions,
pollution sources)•Transboundary impacts•Management response•Transboundary cooperation
Pan-European regional assessment of transboundary waters
Central Asia Transboundary waters
Maps: Zoi, IGRAC
35 transboundary aquifers
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Assessment of the Water-Food-Energy-Ecosystems Nexus
• Part of the Water Convention’s Work Programme 2013-2015• Work overseen and guided by the Task Force on the Water-Food-
Energy-Ecosystems Nexus; Working Group on IWRM• Some 6-8 basins to be assessed; different nexus settings, climate,
resource scarcity...• Syr Darya also to be assessed in cooperation with the national
administrations of KZ, KG, TJ, UZ; workshop in November 2014• Key partners: Finland (lead)/Finnish Environment Institute SYKE,
FAO, Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm)• Basin assessments 2013-2015; final report in August 2015•
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
EUWI National Policy Dialogues: work plan of IWRM component
(UNECE)• Kazakhstan: Analysis of the usefulness of joining the Protocol
on Water and Health; Preparing for target setting (Protocol); Preparing and implementing projects on 1) strengthening of the existing intergovernmental committees and working groups on transboundary rivers & 2) improving management capacity at the basin level
• Kyrgyzstan: continue support to the Chu river basin council: support for meetings, capacity building; developing the Chu basin management plan; assistance to process of drafting National Water Strategy
• Tajikistan: supporting the work of legal working group: analysis on changes needed in various laws and bylaws in order to fully apply the National Water Sector Reform Strategy and the IWRM principles.
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Protocol on Water Health & links to groundwater
• 1st international agreement to attain an adequate supply of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation for everyone
• In Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan projects on target setting, the baseline analysis included the overview of groundwater sources for drinking purposes, their quality and contamination issues. In KG one of the targets included the elaboration of technical regulations to protect groundwater sources used as sources from drinking water from contamination - sanitary zoning…
• Score-card for monitoring progress has been published
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
UNECE Guidelines of relevance to Transboundary Groundwaters
• UNECE Task Force on Monitoring and Assessment: Guidelines on Monitoring and Assessment of Transboundary Groundwater, 2000 (March 2000)
• Strategies for monitoring and assessment of transboundary rivers, lakes and groundwaters (October 2006)
• Good Practice for Monitoring and Assessment of Transboundary Rivers, Lakes and Groundwaters
(2006)• UNECE Guidance on Water and Adaptation
to Climate change (2009)
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Model Provisions onTransboundary Groundwaters
• Non-binding guidance
• adopted by Meeting of the Parties in 2012
• Build on the ILC Draft Articles
• Active participation of UNESCO and IAH in their development
• To be used by Parties and non-Parties when entering into or reviewing bilateral or multilateral agreements on transboundary groundwaters (in the form of an additional protocol to an existing agreement or a new and separate specific agreement on groundwaters)
• Accompanied by commentaries with references to international commitments and existing State practice
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Possible inputs/cooperation contributing to the GEF Syr Darya
groundwater project• Data on transboundary groundwaters from
assessments of available• Guidelines on monitoring etc. available in Russian• Organisation of trainings • Capacity building activities on international water law in
particular• Provision of platforms for dissemination and inter-
sectoral discussion about the findings (NPD Steering Committee meetings, Nexus Assessment of Syr Darya)
• …
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Thank you!
More information
including guidelines, publications and information on activities under the Convention can be found at
http://unece.org/env/water