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Over 260 rivers, covering half the Earth’s land surface and supporting 40% of its population, cross borders. With global warming disrupting droughts, floods, and rainfall, competition for water has become fierce. Two-thirds of armed conflicts occur in dry regions, making fair resource allocation critical. But can we make decisions without access to reliable, shared data?

Challenges of Water-Sharing Agreements
Theoretically, international treaties define how water resources should be split, how dams should be managed, and how water takings should vary from one season to another. In practice, we see upstream nations unilaterally adjust flow to meet their own agenda. These situations typically lead to mistrust and disputes.

Outlined solution: Basin Digitization
Disagreements are inevitable when each country relies on its own data. To restore trust between nations across a basin, basin authorities must ensure that member states all agree on sharing all their available data. This way, nations along the basing have access to every data generated across borders.

Benefits of Shared Data
Here are two epitomes why a shared digital monitoring and forecasting system, that provides all parties with the same data, changes the game by enhancing mutual trust. Firstly, in Sénégal, basin digitization helps the Société d’Aménagement et d’Exploitation du Delta du fleuve Sénégal (SAED) refine irrigation, ensuring water is distributed efficiently to farmers, without harming households in need of drinkable water, or the flow that goes down to Mauritania. Secondly, in the Himalayas, where 80% of annual precipitation falls within 4 months, coordinated flood forecasting between Nepal and India prevents communities from devastating losses.

With climate change reshaping hydrology, transboundary cooperation has become paramount. Basin digitization provides transparency and henceforth trust. Water-sharing agreements have always been a driving force of cooperation, even in times of tension. The deployment of data-sharing systems between nations, is key to making transboundary water resource management a pillar of climate resilience and peace.

Jeremy Fain, CEO of Blue Water Intelligence