Groundwater in international law
Subtitle: compilation of treaties and other legal instruments
By: Stefano Burchi, Kerstin Mechlem for the Development Law Service, FAO Legal Office.
Contributors: Mechlem, Kerstin.; Unesco.; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Development Law Service.; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Legal Office.
Series: FAO legislative study -- 86
Publisher: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; FAO
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Rome
Language: eng
Number of pages: 566
Subjects: Groundwater -- Law and legislation; Water resources development -- Law and legislation
Description: Groundwater is of high social, economic, environmental and strategic importance. It represents about ninety-seven percent of the fresh water resources available on earth, excluding the water locked in the polar ice. Aquifers, among them numerous transboundary ones, are coming under growing pressure from over-abstraction and pollution, which seriously threaten their sustainability. Up to now international law has paid much less attention to ground- than to surface water. Slowly however, a body of rules dealing with this vital resource is emerging that indicates a trend towards more comprehensive international regulation. This publication brings together binding and non-binding international law instruments that, in varying degrees and from different angles, deal with groundwater. Its aim is to report developments in international law and to contribute to detecting law in-the-making in this important field.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.