CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN TRANSBOUNDARY WATERS: INCORPORATING WATER QUALITY IN NEGOTIATIONS

The urgent demand of integrated water resources management has drawn attention to the issue of trans-national water bodies that comprise exploitable resources for two or more countries. It is estimated that 50 % of the global surface is lying on transboundary catchments and this percentage is continually increasing due to the creation of new nations, while around 40 % of the earth’s population residents in transboundary water catchments. According to historical facts, no record exists of hostility due to shared water resources, but it is anticipated that in the future water will replace oil as the primary cause of war. Problems of transboundary nature in connection with the imminent threat of water shortage render the management of transboundary catchments a crucial issue that demands co-operative mechanisms for the preservation of the political stability, the environmental protection and the equitable use of the shared water resources. The aim of the present paper is to contribute towards the development of a Negotiation Support System (NSS) for the management of transboundary water resources in compliance with the institutional and international legal framework contributing to conflict resolution in transboundary catchments. NSS comprise a special category of Decision Support Systems (DSS) which are vital for the success of resolving water conflicts (Nandalal and Simonovic, 2003). The main purpose is to expand the existin