PUBLIC LECTURE ON ‘INTERNATIONAL LAW FOR TRANSBOUNDARY GROUNDWATER RESOURCES’

As part of Sai University’s Water Law Initiative, an online public lecture on the topic ‘Regulating What We Can’t See: International Law for Transboundary Groundwater Resources’ will be held on June 12, 2021, at 7 pm IST.

The lecture will be given by Professor Gabriel E Eckstein, Professor of Law at Texas A&M University and Director of the law school’s Program in Energy, Environmental & Natural Resources Systems. He specializes on water, natural resources, and environmental law and policy issues at the local, national, and international levels.

About the topic:

With the exception of most island nations, every country on the globe is hydrologically connected to its neighbors. This is especially evident in the approximately 600 cross-border aquifers and groundwater bodies that have been identified world-wide and that are being exploited to varying degrees. Surprisingly, and in contrast to the more than 3,600 treaties and agreements governing transboundary rivers and lakes, there are only a small handful of formal agreements and informal arrangements in place for transboundary groundwater resources. This presentation offers an overview of the governance of groundwater resources in an international context, and identifies global trends and priorities in the nascent evolution of international law for these critical hidden treasures. The presentation also considers gaps and shortcomings in the emerging regime, and offers recommendations for the further development of the law.