There is a continuous danger of pollution, though people can be shown how their daily activities can degrade common water supplies. Providing safe freshwater supplies to urban dwellers, on the other hand, typically requires governmental authorities to identify, transport, treat and distribute water. These comprise rivers or lakes representing common boundaries between countries, groundwater aquifers underlying two or more nations, and rivers or lakes flowing from one country to another. Relations can be especially difficult if an upstream nation does not pay adequate attention to the needs of the downstream country, or countries, into which its water flows. Unwise water consumption, water pollution, or the discharge of wastes into waters that flow into other countries provide a basis for potential conflict.
Integrated management is essential in multiple riparian situations.
All riparian countries must give proper consideration to the need for equitable and environmentally sustainable supplies of freshwater resources. International river or lake agreements that provide for the protection and conservation of such shared freshwater resources are especially useful. This incorporates the notion of integrated management of freshwater resources as a means of ensuring sustainable development while taking into consideration all the factors that can affect it. First there is a comprehensive diagnostic phase so as to characterize accurately the general environmental condition of a drainage basin or groundwater aquifer and the factors affecting it. Then an action plan is agreed by the riparian countries, outlining the actions needed to correct the problems thus identified.