Water Resources of GCC: International Aspects

Abstract

Rapid economic development in the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council has led to major hydrologic stresses being laid on the aquifers underlying most of the Arabian Peninsula. These aquifers presently constitute the major local resource and, to a significant degree, they are shared across international boundaries. The “Basic Law” of the GCC provides necessary and sufficient rules for the creation of an international framework to manage these shared groundwater resources.