Context:

Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) has become the 10th African nation to join the United Nations Water Convention.

Key Highlights 

• It is now the 53rd Party to the 1992 UN Water Convention, also known as the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes.
• The Convention requires parties to cooperate on sustainable management of transboundary waters. 
• Ivory Coast shares eight transboundary river basins (Black Volta, Bia, Tanoe, Comoe, Niger, Sassandra, Cavally et Nuon) with six of its neighbours
• The Global Water Security 2023 Assessment ranks Ivory Coast as the 40th most water-insecure country in Africa.
• Sierra Leone, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are also in the final stages of joining the Convention.

About the United Nation water convention

• The 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UN Water Convention) is a unique international legal instrument and intergovernmental platform that aims to ensure the sustainable use of transboundary water resources by facilitating cooperation. 
• Initially negotiated as a regional instrument (for the pan-European region), it was opened up for accession to all UN Member States in 2016.
• The Protocol provides a practical framework to translate into practice the human rights to water and sanitation and to implement SDG 6 (Ensure access to water and sanitation for all).
• India is not a party to the Convention.