UNECE has to tackle a wide range of water quantity and water quality problems: high water stress and overexploitation of water resources, increasing droughts and floods, contaminated water resulting in water-related diseases, etc. Attempts at solving these complex problems in Europe are further complicated by the essentially transboundary nature of water resources. More than 150 major rivers and 50 large lakes in the UNECE region run along or straddle the border between two or more countries. Twenty European countries depend for more than 10% of their water resources on neighbouring countries and five countries draw 75% of their resources from upstream countries.
Fortunately, UNECE member States are aware of the need for cooperation if they are to ensure that transboundary waters are used reasonably and equitably. They know that they share the same water resources and rely on each other to apply effective solutions. This positive approach to the problem has been triggered, in no small measure, by the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, which 34 UNECE countries and the European Community have already ratified. The Convention establishes main principles and rules for its Parties to develop and promote coordinated measures of sustainable use of water and related resources of transboundary rivers and international lakes, as well as of institutional mechanisms to be created for it.
