Benefit sharing in international rivers : findings from the Senegal river basin, the Columbia river basin, and the Lesotho highlands water project

TLDR: In this article, the authors explored the benefits and costs of benefit sharing in international river basins and explored the institutional and policy arrangements needed to implement these benefit sharing schemes and common challenges to realizing growth and poverty alleviation objectives.

Abstract: This paper explores two propositions regarding international river basins: 1) cooperative development of international rivers offers unique economic advantages over unilateral development; and 2) benefit sharing is a necessary condition for facilitating this cooperation. Despite the intuitive appeal of benefit sharing, clear benchmarks and good practices in structuring agreeable benefit sharing arrangements are lacking. Lessons from past experience are critical for guiding emerging regional institutions and potential water-related investments in several international river basins in Africa. By examining three parallel case studies - the Senegal River basin, the Columbia River Basin, and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project - this paper explores how the riparian countries quantified the benefits and costs of cooperative development and reached an acceptable formula for sharing these mutual gains. This paper also explores the institutional and policy arrangements needed to implement these benefit sharing schemes and common challenges to realizing growth and poverty alleviation objectives.