Kpenou, Stéphanie --- "Fresh water as Common Heritage and a Common Concern of Mankind" [2018] ELECD 1235; in Tignino, Mara; Bréthaut, Christian (eds), "Research Handbook on Freshwater Law and International Relations" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 2

Book Title: Research Handbook on Freshwater Law and International Relations

Editor(s): Tignino, Mara; Bréthaut, Christian

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781785360640

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Fresh water as Common Heritage and a Common Concern of Mankind

Author(s): Kpenou, Stéphanie

Number of pages: 29

Abstract/Description:

Access to water and environmental protection represent major challenges of the twenty-first century. Population growth, urbanization and industrialization have triggered a significant increase of water demand and fresh water resources are pushed to their limits in many part of the world. This crisis has raised challenges that have not only local or regional scale but also a global dimension. Fresh water resources have always been understood as belonging to a State or a group of States, and not to the international community as a whole. Fresh water management and protection have so far been undertaken in a context of geographical proximity such as in the case of river basins. The new challenges generated by the global freshwater crisis call for an evolution of international water law. Common Concern and Common Heritage regimes induce an idea of cooperation between States, intergenerational solidarity and help transcend territoriality. The present chapter analyses the applicability of the Common Concern and Common Heritage regimes to fresh water resources.