Competence Standardization Competition And Water Distribution Of International Rivers

In international river management, it is difficult for cooperation on waterAllocation. From1950s, there has been the disputes for water allocation in the Nileriver, the Twin rivers, the Ganges-Brahmaputra river and the Jordan river, whichmakes cooperation within basin in futile. However, there was a sign of cooperation inGanges-Brahmaputra and the Jordan River in the middle1990s, agreement wasachieved on water allocation respectively. On the While, the disputes on waterallocation was still the theme within the Nile river basin and the Twin river basin.Why there are cooperation on water allocation within some basins, while there are notin others? That is, under which conditions, there will exist cooperation on waterallocations in international river?Water rights dispute is the core of the water allocations within a basin where theriparian states competed for rights of ownerships and uselization of international river.The riparian states value differently for who is the owner of international river andhow much, which enhance conflicting water claims of the riparian rights and the priorapproporiation rights. The disputes between absolute sovereignty and the absoluteriverrain integrity are rising for how to use international river. In essence, these twopairs of conflicting water claims are based on different expectations for what is theappropriate allocation behavior, which construct competing rights norms and enhancethe disputes of water allocation.In this paper, a framework is developed to interpret the change in waterallocations in the middle1990s. This framework examined the relation context withina basin, where the riparian states interact with the international river and also interactwith each others. The relation context within a basin provides a mirror for riparianstates to determine the identity of self and the other, which explains why the riparianstates are sensitive to water rights. Based on such sensitivity, the riparian states willmake some special and clear assertions for water rights in the water allocationsnegotiations. Whether or not there is cooperation in water allocations depends oncontext sensitivity, which means the riparian states perceive the others’ water rights inappropriate ways, such as making positive responsiveness or avoidance. If not, the consistent incentives would be presented, which cause the stable norm compliancewithin riparian states, and make negotiation no fruits. The case of the Ganges and theJordan river prove that context sensitivity can promote cooperation. On the contrary,the riparian states within the Nile and the twin rivers fail to cooperate for lack ofcontext sensitivity.Though some scholars think that cooperation on water allocations should avoidallocation in rights, this article insists that water rights claims of the riparian states areperceived of accessing or maintaining of the identity, therefore, it is significant not tobe ignorant of these rights claims in water allocations.