The real driving force

This post is a short summary of the driving forces behind water laws that are made regarding African transboundary water resources. This was inspired by the article entitled , ' driving forces behind African transboundary water law : internal , external , and implications ' by Jonathan Lautze , Mark Giordano and Maelis Borghese. 

  The internal drivers that are discussed within this article are numbered in terms of how common they are. The most common internal factor that drives post-colonial water laws within African river basins is something called ‘ joint management ‘. The concept of joint management is that nations who share the water source come to an agreement on a set of principles or structures that help to manage the water source.  The second most common is water development, which is the use of the water source for the purpose of hydroelectric power or irrigation purposes, usually through the construction of dams. The other two internal drivers for transboundary water laws in Africa are environmental sustainability and water allocation. Environmental sustainability is becoming more of a driving factor when laws are being made due to climate change.  The external drivers of water laws are as follows; A country or region’s geostrategic importance, global trends in water resources management and development, religious or cultural affiliation and international concern with transboundary waters.  Just one example of an external driver relating to cultural affiliation is within the Senegal River basin. The article uses  four examples within Africa which are the Nile, the Senegal, The Niger and the Volta.