ABSTRACT
Rivers are commonly used as administrative boundaries within a state. In Australia the Murray between New South Wales and Victoria, and in Canada the Ottawa are inter-provincial boundaries. The legal problems that international river boundaries give rise to are mainly concerned with definition and demarcation. The problems of definition involve either the physical definition of a watercourse or the definition of the boundary line along a mutually agreed-upon river. The physical definition or recognition of a river for a boundary is easy once the territory is accurately surveyed and mapped and the river names are traditionally or legally accepted. Water boundaries are usually demarcated by reference to land marks, and are often in practice marked in detail only on the official reference maps. India may develop hydroelectric stations and build storage reservoirs of about 4,500 million m3 total capacity on the headstreams of the western rivers in India for general purposes, particularly flood control.
