One of the important functions of the United Nations General Assembly is to codify the international law in order to establish the rule of law for the cause of justice and order of the international community. The UN International Law Commission is the subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly to prepare the basic documents for such codification. The Commission embarked on the work of formulating draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers in 2002. The author was appointed as the Special Rapporteur for this project and the Commission was able to submit to the UN General Assembly its final report in 2008. The UN General Assembly is to make its decision in 2011 on how to proceed to transform these draft articles into the treaty. The most of the States have transboundary aquifers with their neighbours. The groundwater is an indispensable life support resource for the mankind and also the most heavily exploited single resource for which no alternative resource exists. The establishment of legal norms for the proper management of transboundary aquifers, protection of environment, international cooperation and pacific settlement of disputes among the States sharing the aquifers is urgently required by the international community. This paper is designed to present the background of the issue, how the draft articles are formulated in cooperation with hydrogeologists and groundwater administrators, main elements of the draft articles, positions of various States and the future prospect of the draft articles.

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Groundwater, finite source on the earth, has been utilized as handy and cost-effective water sources by various sectors. Global change including population growth and climate change will add pressure to groundwater stress which already exists in many parts of the world. Integrated Water Resources Management will help implementing sustainable, better groundwater management by reducing inefficient use of water and promoting flexible development of surface and ground water resources. Integration of surface water and groundwater through IWRM should happen at four different phases, i.e., formulation of legal framework and policy; planning and implementation; public involvement and stakeholder participation; and information sharing and disclosure. The paper explains how the integration should happen and what outcomes are expected in each of the phases. Example of international contribution through IWRM of groundwater is also explained.

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Land subsidence is a common intermittent problem in Asian Megacities, such as Tokyo, Osaka and Bangkok, of different economic development stages. The purpose of this paper is to justify government intervention and clarify policy options against land subsidence problem with Bangkok case. First of all, government intervention is necessary because land subsidence problem can be regarded as an example of collective action problems that are hard to be solved by voluntary cooperation of stakeholders. Especially in case of Bangkok, such cooperation was prevented due to factors including group size, subsidence rate and high cost of waterworks construction. The roles government played in mitigating land subsidence problem in Bangkok can be classified as follows; (1)enacting groundwater law that requires groundwater users to get a pumping permission from government, (2)establishing areas, based on monitoring data, where groundwater pumping is strictly regulated, (3)introducing groundwater fee system to give people disincentive to use groundwater, (4)construction of waterworks. In sum, land subsidence in Bangkok was mitigated by policies that fostered conversion of water supply from groundwater to surface water, which was made possible by not only regulating groundwater pumping but also providing

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Today we are in an age where there is no safe tap water available in most countries worldwide. With a high average of annual precipitation, Japan is said to be a country blessed with rich rainfall and groundwater. We Japanese make the full of using of hydrological circulation and groundwater for drinking with care. In this report the direction of groundwater management is proposed, giving a successful example of groundwater management in the Hadano basin, which needs more effort for better management of the groundwater. We can make effective use of groundwater if we closely examine the local hydrological system and the environment.

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Kumamoto city, with its 730,000 citizens, has provided its high quality groundwater to the entire households of Kumamoto for long periods of time to use as the daily water supply, which is truly rare example in Japan. Kumamoto City is mainly located at the discharge area of local groundwater region where is composed by 11 Municipality around Kumamoto city. It is essential for Kumamoto city to develop the groundwater conservation plan and policy to cooperate with those 11 neighboring municipalities and agencies. Present paper is mainly to introduce the contents of water conservation measures. In addition, the experimental groundwatermanagement governance model is proposed for the groundwater region composed by several municipalities.

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Kumamoto Prefecture, located in the center of Kyushu, is blessed with abundant natural water resources, and with more than one thousand water springs and 408 rivers and streams it is known as having the highest quality water in Japan. The prefecture treats its rich groundwater resources as the common property of the people and as valuable strategic resources and is currently attracting attention for its variety of measures to ensure the sustainable usage of groundwater. Bearing in mind the lessons learned from the pollution-induced tragedy Minamata Disease, the prefecture instituted the ″Kumamoto Prefecture Fundamental Environment Ordinance″ in 1990 and then formulated a basic policy in 1991 and basic environmental programs in 1996 based on this ordinance. Owing to every effort in accordance with these programs, the quality of public water, especially that of rivers and streams, generally continues to improve. The prefecture has encountered administrative barriers when trying to promote effective and efficient measures for enclosed water areas that extend into other prefectures and river and groundwater routes that pass through multiple municipalities. The prefecture also faces issues concerning aging and shrinking populations in regions with water spring spots and a decrease in size of groundwater storage areas in urban regions. Fortunately, however, the prefecture has one of the nation's top accumulations of research and studies concerning groundwater flow, and in 2008, the prefecture and watershed municipalities formulated the ″Second Plan for Comprehensive Managerial Maintenance of Kumamoto Region Groundwater″ (Activity Plan). In addition, a water strategy assembly consisting of knowledgeable persons was established in 2009 to advise on and discuss future preservation and multifaceted application of groundwater as a strategic natural resource.

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Groundwater is a part of water cycle and should be considered as a linkage beyond the boundaries between surface⁄subsurface and land⁄ocean. It is necessary for groundwater to be treated as not only resources but also circulation which makes linkages between human, life and society. To maintain the better groundwater circulation, the norm and regional⁄local proud can be institutionalized.

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