Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

The benefit-sharing principle : implementing sovereignty bargains on water

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Alam, Undala, Dione, Ousmane and Jeffrey, Paul (2009) The benefit-sharing principle : implementing sovereignty bargains on water. Political Geography, Vol.28 (No. 2). pp. 90-100. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2008.12.006 ISSN 0962-6298.

Research output not available from this repository.

Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2008.12.006

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

A global water crisis is emerging that may challenge states’ existing and future water availability. With
countries already heavily reliant on international rivers, the issue of managing water scarcity in these
basins is mounting. An already complex issue due to climatic change and the politics of access, the
management of water resources is complicated further by sovereignty. In a context shaped by political
boundaries and a concomitant territorial exclusivity, nation-states seek to guarantee their societies’
water by exerting control through physical and institutional infrastructure. Yet, the basin’s hydrological
interdependency implies co-riparian countries remain vulnerable to each other’s use of the shared river,
suggesting ecological rather than just political limits to sovereignty. The continued vulnerability, as
envisaged within the greening of sovereignty, suggests international cooperation is necessary. Explained
as sovereignty bargains, in which states trade reduced autonomy for future benefits, international
cooperation is, we suggest, bi-directional and can stem from or create international institutions. We
examine an instance of international cooperation that exemplifies an alternative approach to international
river management. The benefit-sharing principle focuses on allocating the outputs from water use,
rather than the water itself; and was used by the Senegal basin riparians to access key services such as
electricity despite a context of poverty, climatic change and intra-basin politics. What emerges is a strong
narrative of cooperation sustained, over decades, by the states’ willingness to engage in sovereignty
bargains.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General)
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography
J Political Science > JQ Political institutions (Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific Area, etc.)
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Journal or Publication Title: Political Geography
Publisher: Elsevier Science Inc.
ISSN: 0962-6298
Official Date: 2009
Dates:
DateEvent
2009Published
Volume: Vol.28
Number: No. 2
Page Range: pp. 90-100
DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2008.12.006
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item
twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us