Together in the future: possible approach for new/existing multipurpose reservoirs - From identifying the right partners up to sharing the resource water: operational & legal aspects

Abstract

Climate change has, in recent years, dramatically shown the importance and impact of the resource water: extreme situations such as floods respectively scarcity become more and more frequent. Multipurpose reservoirs can help to mitigate the negative impacts. Sharing water means in principle sharing the benefits and the risks. But how to balance the complementary, sometimes even conflicting interests of all “share-holders”, i.e. the users concerned, - “Shareholders”, which usually are independent non-connected legal entities? How to balance efficiency and sustainability? Defining the corresponding rights and obligations of the different users sharing the water stored in a reservoir is challenging from an operational as well as from a legal point of view. The authors will illustrate what could be a possible blueprint for a new/ existing multipurpose reservoir, from the planning up to the operation phase, and what the relationships among the users could look like, by taking into account operational needs and legal aspects. Additionally, the paper will discuss how the relationship of all users to other stakeholders such as the financing institutions, the state (bundled permitting/concession procedure?) or affected communities could be organised.