Management of the Rhine Basin
Located west of central Europe, with an area of 163,609 km2 (63,170 sq mi), the basin holds nine countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland (figure 1).
[6][7] The Rhine Basin holds a population of 48,831,090 people that require water for irrigation, livestock, electricity, manufacturing, domestic, and per Capita use.
[4] Total water withdrawals are highest for Germany, Netherlands, and France in that order with 100 percent of their population living in urban city centers.
Major hydrological modifications were made to the upper basin to provide flood control, and navigability of the Rhine as well as arable land.
[6] This spurred the Agreement on the International Commission for the protection of the Rhine against pollution of 1963 which set up the ICPR to address the issue of the basin’s deterioration.
Improving the Rhine ecosystem and drinking water for future use were already in place, the reduction of river sediment pollution, and rehabilitation of efforts—removal of concrete structures and small dams for better fish migration, removal of contaminated sediment—were added.
Netherlands' stakeholders in the past have believed that upstream parties must take on more adaptive measures for battling transboundary incidences flowing downstream.
[6] Again, the cooperation of upstream parties seems to answer this as their past agreements including other international relations outside of water resource co-management have made it so they are obliged to work towards a better end.
[5] Article 14 requires cooperation with “external” experts and organizations that can provide consulting and information that can help enhance the goals of the CPR.
If any disputes arises, the commission can settle among themselves, or if incapable of coming to a solution, they can go to the International Court of Justice and appoint a third party to help in the process (CPR, 1997, Annex, Arbitration).
[6] As mentioned before, Netherland is a downstream party and has been vocal about being open any flooding and release of fertilizers from farms along the Rhine rivers, bringing up the upstream-downstream issue.
