Integrated Water Resource Management in West African Basin Organizations—Toward Sustainable Economic Development

To the hectic pace of creation of River Basin Organizations in West Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, it will follow a period of institutional lethargy of the organizations thus created. Meanwhile, on the international front, efforts to codify the customary rules forming the corpus juris of international water law will intensify, leading to new development in international water law. To maintain their relevance, the West African RBO had to adapt their legal framework, resulting in the successive adoption of various water charters. These charters, however, far from being mere actualization of the existing legal frameworks, will in many regards prove to be much more ambitious and comprehensive, especially on the issues of environmental protection, water resources management, recognition, and preservation of the rights of pastoral populations living on transhumance, but also on the delicate issue of the participation of water resource users in the decision-making process on the management of the resource, thus confirming the paradigm shift in international water law and the new trends in the development of the latter which, due to the complexity and dynamism characterizing an international watercourse, requires a more holistic approach with other branches of international law such as international environmental and human rights. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.