DRIVING FORCES BEHIND AFRICAN TRANSBOUNDARY WATER LAW: INTERNAL, EXTERNAL, AND IMPLICATIONS

While it may be commonly assumed that transboundary water law is driven by water related concerns revealed in the texts of international agreements, external, textually invisible factors often influence the formation and realization of treaties as well. Using both textual and contextual analysis, this study provides an initial assessment of the drivers of international water law in Africa's post-colonial period. The authors first develop a typology of major drivers and then use that typology to examine the development and implementation of transboundary water law in four African basins: the Nile, Senegal, Niger, and Volta. The analysis reveals that, while virtually all agreements are driven by a combination of internal and external factors, external drivers have played a major role in agreement orientation and realization and in some cases are even responsible for treaty formation. Importantly, these external drivers generally reflect global paradigms that have been imported to Africa regardless of whether conditions on the continent warrant their use.