water authorities need to work with other constituencies including the agriculture and energy sectors while taking the environment into account they also need to work at different levels of government local basin municipal state and federal levels for example there has been longstanding cooperation between canada and the united states through the canadaus boundary waters treaty and the canadaus great lakes water quality agreement the united nations economic commission for europe operates the convention on the protection and use of transboundary watercourses and international lakes providing an important framework for international cooperation