Water is the lifeline of planet earth. For hundreds of years, conflicts in water sharing have existed all around the globe. There are several cases of river basins being shared by two or more countries. Some of these nations have had troubles, like India and Pakistan over the Indus River; Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia over the Nile; and Israel, Palestine, and Syria over the Jordan River. Therefore, the “Right to Water course” has been an issue of discontent among neighboring countries. Examples of points of contention include: Which country shall use what percentage of the water? Does the country of origin of the river have the complete right to the upstream water? Should the downstream country have an uninterrupted flow of water? There has never been an easy or rule-of-thumb solution for these kinds of issues and arguments because every river basin is unique. The United Nations (UN) International Court of Justice (previously called the Permanent Court for International Justice) passed resolutions to mitigate this problem. In 1997, the UN introduced the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Water courses.
The dispute relating to the sharing of the Cauvery water between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry is a very old dispute. But it has attracted lot of public attention in recent times, particularly the sharing of Cauvery River water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Cauvery water dispute has been an ongoing, living issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The problem has deep historical roots. Both the State Governments have made several attempts to resolve the dispute amicably. Besides the problem of water sharing between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has brought into sharp focus the legal hurdles.