Revision as of 13:30, 14 May 2014

Summary

The Rhine River is a major waterway that originates from Switzerland, and flows through France, Germany and the Netherlands to reach the North Sea; the basin itself includes 9 European countries. International cooperation on the Rhine River Basin has been ongoing since 1815 and continues today to resolve trans-boundary conflicts and manage water problems, including shipping, navigation, salt intrusion, water pollution, and flooding issues .

This case study focuses on the international cooperation required to prevent pollution to the Rhine River. Water quality declined during the 1850s as a result of wastes discharged into the river because of industrialization and urbanization. Although international commissions were formed to address the pollution problem, plans to improve water quality were not implemented until the 1980s. Sparked by the Sandoz Accident of 1986, the Rhine Action Program was developed to restore ecological habitats and ensure drinking water quality for over 20 million people in the Basin . The Rhine Action Program has been successful in reducing phosphorus concentrations and reviving the salmon population . After the Program ended in 2000, “Rhine 2020" and the EU Water Framework Directive were adopted to continue water quality control and ecological rehabilitation . The success of the program is attributed to the immense collaboration and stakeholder engagement throughout the process, and can be analyzed through the lens of the Water Diplomacy Framework.

Natural, Historic, Economic, Regional, and Political Framework

Ecological and Geographical Background

The Rhine River Basin has a watershed area of approximately 200,000 km2 (UNESCO), and encompasses nine countries in Europe: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Switzerland . The River itself is 1320 km long, in which it originates in Switzerland, and flows through France, Germany, and the Netherlands before discharging into the North Sea (Figure V-1). Historically known for its navigable waters used for shipping and industrial services, as well as supplying water for agriculture, the River is now also used to provide electricity, potable water for over 20 million people, and tourism (UNESCO) . The ecology of the basin was altered during the 1900s when pollution damaged the ecosystem and floodplains were altered to provide agricultural lands; however, ecological improvements have been made in recent years to protect the basin and revive the flora and fauna.

Social, Economic and Cultural Context

Primary Uses of the Rhine River include:

• Shipping: The Rhine River connects the port in Rotterdam of the Netherlands with the world’s largest inland port in Duisburg, Germany (UNESCO). This waterway is heavily used for shipping and navigation by all of the basin states, and to mitigate conflicts between nations, the Central Commission for Navigation of the Rhine was established in 1815.
• Industrial Use: There are 6 industrial centers along the Rhine, which includes chemical/ coal/ steel production facilities, food industry, textiles, automobile manufacturing facilities, and refineries
• Drinking water: The Rhine supplies drinking water for over 20 million people in the basin (UNESCO)
• Agriculture: “half of the surface of the Rhine watershed is used for agriculture” (IKSR)
• Fishing: Salmon fishing was a huge economic activity until the 1950s. Salmon Commission that was established in 1885 ceased to exist in 1950 because the fish population dwindled due to water pollution.

The Problem

The Rhine River Basin spans across nine countries, and has experienced a variety of issues in the past, including navigation, pollution, high levels of salt, ecological deterioration and flooding, and some of these issues continue to exist today . In particular, pollution problems in the Rhine River began during the 1850s due to the increase of agricultural/ fertilizer runoff and industrial wastes that were released into the river. As industrialization progressed, more chemicals, metals and organic compounds were discharged and the accumulation of these constituents led to the decrease of fish populations. Additionally, urbanization during this period caused the basin to incur large amounts of domestic wastes. Wastewater treatment plants could not handle the growing capacity, and because the industries brought about such economic growth, policymakers did not want to impose restrictions to the amount of wastes generated by the facilities (UNESCO). Furthermore, the downstream states, especially the Netherlands, experienced high salinity in the drinking water supply from the Rhine River because of the waste salts dumped from potash mining. To exacerbate the issue, the Sandoz Accident in 1986 released toxic chemicals that affected over 400 km of the river. Sandoz, an agrochemical warehouse in Switzerland caught on fire (Figure II-3), and chemicals that leaked into the river killed many organisms and contaminated the drinking water supply for those living in the Rhine River Basin.

Timeline of Events

Government, Political and Legal Context/ Attempts at Conflict Management

The deterioration of the water quality in the Rhine River due to agricultural and industrial wastes was first brought to attention by the Salmon Commission. The Salmon Commission was formed by the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany in 1885 to regulate and protect salmon fishing along the Rhine River (Mostert, 2014); when the salmon population was declining, the Salmon Commission was obligated by the Netherlands to discuss water quality issues and chloride pollution in drinking water during its meetings in 1922, 1928 and 1933; the Dutch were concerned because they were the downstream community that was affected by all the pollution and wastes generated from Switzerland, Germany and other upstream countries. However, these issues remained unaddressed for a number of following years because upstream countries were uninterested, and because Europe experienced an economic recession that lasted through World War II. The chloride pollution was eventually revisited by the Dutch government (via the Salmon Commission) after World War II in 1948. Because the Salmon Commission was formed on the basis of regulating fishing, the pollution problem was deferred and a new commission was established to address this issue. The International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR) was henceforth formed in 1950 via an exchange of diplomatic letters and via facilitation with the help of the Navigation Commission (Mostert, 2014). The ICPR included members from Germany, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and the European Economic Community joined the ICPR in 1976.

The ICPR was founded in 1950 to encourage trans-boundary cooperation and control the amount of pollution discharged into the Rhine River. Originally focused on research only, the French and German delegations later wanted to broaden the mandate of the ICPR, and therefore the ICPR was expanded in 1963 under the Berne Treaty to include authority for the ICPR to propose solutions for protecting the Rhine against pollution, and for preparing future agreements related to pollution control in the Rhine River. Unfortunately, the Berne Treaty did not include emission reduction goals or discussed about actions pertaining to the tributaries that carried the most pollutants (Mostert, 2009).

Research conducted by the ICPR indicated that the French potassium mines contributed to one-third of total chlorides pollution that was affecting the water quality in the Netherlands, and Germany contributed a significant portion of the pollution too. Because the French did not regulate the salt discharges, the Dutch government recalled its ambassador from France. Eventually, an agreement on the chlorides issue was reached at the first Rhine Ministers Conference in 1972, where the Netherlands offered to contribute to the costs of storing salt, provided that France and Germany would contribute too. In the end, it was agreed that all ICPR members should contribute and the subsequent negotiations focused on the costs of storing salt. After more than four years, the Convention on the Protection of the Rhine against Pollution by Chlorides was signed in 1976. According to this convention, France would reduce chlorides emissions by 60% by 1 January 1980 (Mostert, 2014).

Although the Chlorides Convention addressed some of the water quality issues, water pollution was still ongoing. According to Chase (2012), “From 1976 through 1986, environmental protection measures were being enacted in all of the ICPR member nations, but the Rhine continued to suffer… During the summer of 1986, officials from the Netherlands’ Ministry of Transport, Public Works, and Water Management tried to meet with their German counterparts to discuss issues surrounding the Rhine. The German officials refused to meet because of the poor relations between government officials and differing approaches to regulating pollution discharge levels in the river. Governance of the river was at an impasse.” It wasn’t until the Sandoz Accident in 1986 and the political and social pressure from the media that triggered the ICPR to convene and address the water quality damages. As a result of this meeting, the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works, and Water Management hired a private consulting group, McKinsey & Company to help ICPR develop an action plan. Based on Chase (2012), McKinsey:

• “Interviewed top water pollution experts from all of the member nations to identify which pollutants deserved the highest priority in the cleanup of the Rhine. The substances that were most frequently mentioned would form the first list of pollutants to address and ban.
• Found a symbol of restoration and improved quality of the river: they determined that the overarching goal of the plan should be to restore salmon to the river by the year 2000.
• Determined that international regulation should be minimal and informal. The plan called for non-binding reports regarding goals for cleanup of the river to be issued by the ICPR, rather than a formal treaty making process setting out the specifics of regulation.”

This action plan by McKinsey was adopted as the Rhine Action Program of 1987 and was approved unanimously by the members of the ICPR. The Rhine Action Program of 1987 had the following goals :

1. Guarantee drinking water
2. Reduce amounts of cadmium, mercury, lead and dioxins by 50-70% by 1995
3. Construction of basins to collect fire extinction water
4. Ecological Rehabilitation; fish passages must be used on weirs to allow fish (i.e. salmon) to travel upstream for spawning
5. Safety norms in industrial plants should be tightened.
6. The riverside environment should be restored to allow the return of plants and animals typical of the Rhine.

Issues and Stakeholders

Water Quality/ Reducing Source Pollution to the Rhine River

Stakeholders:

• International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR)
• International Commission for the Hydrology of the Rhine Basin (CHR)
• The International Meuse Commission (IMC)
• Representatives from the agricultural sector
• Environmentalist Groups
• Representatives from Industries
• Water users and water providers

Analysis, Synthesis, and Insight

ASI:Applying the Water Diplomacy Framework to the Rhine River Basin on Water Pollution Control

The water quality program for the Rhine River Basin has been successful because the stakeholders promote information exchange, cooperation and consensus, there is trust, and there is a stable budget/ funding to implement the goals. Applying the Water Diplomacy Framework to this case, we can see why the Rhine Action Program was successful(read the full article... )

(last edit: 20 May 2014)