The ministerial statement of the Istanbul WWF 5 emphasises the need for the riparian States to take « the appropriate, tangible and concrete measures to improve and promote cooperation on sustainable use and protection of transboundary water resources through coordinated actions, in conformity with existing agreements. (…). The States will work to strengthen existing institutions and develop new ones …»”.

Where a Transboundary Basin Organisation exists, it will be necessary to define the means, and the conditions to realise the relevant strengthening and to get a qualified Transboundary Basin Organisation, capable to ensure its management mission and mandate (road map of basin organisation).
In particular, most of the existing institutions in charge of river / lake basin management need to enhance their capacity and improve their expertise to study, assess and manage groundwater resources, in order to be able to expand their mandate to the groundwater resource. Indeed, where surface and groundwater resources are used together, they should be managed conjunctively. According to the context, the management of transboundary aquifers should be incorporated into existing hydrological transboundary institutions or done by specific transboundary aquifer institutions, with coordination mechanisms between both types of institutions.
Where no institution exists at basin level, initiatives for intensive dialogue among all riparian countries have to be developed and supported for confidence building and mutual understanding of issues, accompanied with capacity development activities at the level of the most concerned authorities. It will be necessary to identify the basins where a political will exists between the riparian countries to cooperate and to build a step by step work.

In the specific case of transboundary aquifers which are not directly linked to surface water or related to an international river basin, principally the deeper confined ones, the setting up of specific aquifer institutions should be considered by the riparian countries to develop a common groundwater management.
The transboundary water institution development has to be based on the known experiences around the world, through which tools and concrete solutions must be identified.

TARGET 1.5.4 ACTION PLAN 190711