Samuel Tadesse

The 1997 Un Watercourses Convention and Its Application: on Nile River Samuel Tadesse

Now, more than ever and more so in the years to come water in general and fresh water in particular is a very scarce resource, whose supply fails to match the demands of the growing population of the various countries in the world. The legal regimes that govern the complex relationships between the stakeholders seems either to be inadequate, general or difficult to apply in specific circumstances of international Trans-boundary Rivers. Nile is one of the largest trans-boundary rivers in the world. The Nile basin is trapped by the absence of sound rules and principles on the use, management and development of its resources. The basin is also characterized by the presence of a Zero?Sum game. One of the major problems in the Nile basin with respect to the utilization and management of the water is to strike a balance between putting the water in a reasonable manner and causing no significant harm to the existing use. If any dispute arises at present one may resort to the 1997 UN watercourse convention is the only convention in place that governs the use of shared water recourse for non navigational purpose.