With more than 21 percent of the world’s population, the South Asia region (comprising of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lank) has access to just over 8 percent of global water resources. Average water availability per capita across the region has declined by 70 percent since the 1950s, and continues to decrease. Increasing population intensified agricultural practices and irrigation; multiplying energy demand from greater industrial activity and economic growth; urbanization; complex environmental consequences of climate change, deteriorating river ecology, and deteriorating water quality in the regions’ surface and groundwater resources etc., continue to unfold new challenges for the region’s already scarce water resources. South Asia’s water problems can be significantly extenuated through improved water governance of its major transboundary rivers: the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra, which straddle international boundaries and support the lives of about one billion people. The objective of effective regional cooperation in managing Transboundary Rivers in the region will only be achieved when countries work together collaboratively.
Management of water resources of trans-boundary rivers in South Asia is governed by the mechanism of bilateral treaties which are subject to domestic pressures and regional geopolitical compulsions. Transboundary river basin management is of crucial concern for almost all human beings as about 40 per cent of global population resides in river basins that are shared by countries. These transboundary river basins encompass almost half of the Earth’s land surface and provide over 60 per cent of global freshwater flow. The avowed objective of managing transboundary river basins is to bring the people out of poverty, securing their livelihoods and support development efforts in a sustainable manner.
Critical Water Challenges in South Asia Recurring incidents of water and climate-induced disasters like torrential rains, flash floods, landslides, and cloudbursts have put further strain on already scarce water resources of South Asia. Besides, water security in South Asia is under threat from many sources: population growth, urbanization, increasing water pollution, the over-abstraction of groundwater, water-related disasters, and climate change. Current planning and management have proven insufficient to address the challenges of meeting South Asia’s diverse needs for water. The adverse impact of climate change transcends geographical boundaries and as such any climate-induced or water-induced disaster in border areas of South Asia is prone to cause damage to the geographic contiguous areas of the neighbouring country and vice-versa. The water and climate change induced disasters wreak havoc in terms of loss of human and cattle lives, damage to property and loss of livelihoods of the people. This eventually retards the pace of development and entails potentials of jeopardizing security of the nation as well. Water is the main driver of economic growth and sustainable development.
Ganga River Basin and Brahmputra River Basin are two major transboundary river basins in the Himalayan region of South Asia. The Ganga River Basin involves Nepal, India and Bangladesh; whereas Brahmputra River basin involves China, India and Bangladesh. The transboundary river basin management in the Himalayan region of South Asia is faced with particular challenges pertaining to different national interests, power disparities between riparian states, differences in national institutional capacity, limited information exchange and lack of sufficient basin scale knowledge and institutional capacity to make decisions.
Structural features of political geography in the Ganga River Basin pose some impediments to basin-wide management of this region. India’s upper riparian position gives it advantages vis-à-vis Bangladesh. Bangladesh suffers one of the least favourable river dependency ratios of 91.3 per cent on the planet. A second structural challenge emanates from the political challenges facing governments of South Asian countries, especially the delicate coalition arrangement of the central government in India. This problem came to the fore in September 2011 when the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, withdrew her support at the eleventh hour from a water-sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh over the Teesta River. Her exit dealt a severe blow to the hard-won agreement, which would have been the first formal India–Bangladesh agreement over Teesta’s waters since 1996. The failed agreement was up against demographic and economic circumstances in West Bengal.
Another visible challenge emerges from the changing demographic scene in the countries sharing Ganga and Brahmputra basins. Keeping pace with changing demographis numbers and the diminution in per capita water availability will require substantial augmentations in fresh water extractions from the region’s surface and ground resources to ensure the basic food security for rising populations and meet the demand for adequate water supplies arising from the unprecedented scale of the region’s industrialising and urbanising trends.
Massive dependence of agricultural lands on irrigation in India and Bangladesh adds incalculably to the dim outlook for the region’s water resources. A substantial part of irrigated lands in northern India and Bangladesh is dependent on Ganga river. The resultant impact is discernible from millions of farmers in these countries turning to ground water supplies of fresh water to escape the uncertainties of antiquated supply-driven irrigation systems. The fast depletion of aquifers portends imminent water crisis in the region. Chronic shortage of power supply is yet another challenge in river basin management in the Himalayan region of South Asia, thereby, casting doubt over the region’s capacity to ensure future energy security. India is already the world’s sixth-largest energy consumer and its primary energy demand is expected to grow overall by about 127 per cent by 2035. The imperative to increase energy supplies has turned New Delhi’s attention to indigenous hydropower resources, although only about 19.9 per cent of India’s hydropower potential has so far been developed. India’s strategy of tapping hydropower potential in the country’s north and northeast by launching a dam-building spree may runs up against the fresh water needs of India’s lower riparian neighbour, Bangladesh.
The Stumbling Blocks
Following are the key stumbling blocks to closer cooperation among countries in South Asia in settling cross-border water disputes:
- Lack of will on the part of political leadership;
- Absence of confidence-building measures in cross-border areas to improve livelihoods of the affected people;
- Negation of the role of the civil society;
- Absence of regional media’s role; and
- Lack of mutual cooperation and coordination in tackling water related issues.
- Constructing security community in South Asia through water paradigm in mixed conflict and cooperation.
Opportunities
Significant progress has been made on cooperative trans-boundary river basin management by countries of the Himalayan region in South Asia, especially in the aftermath of the Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas – Bhutan 2011. Nepal, India and Bangladesh (NIB) and Bangladesh, India and Bhutan (BIB) have coagulated alliances in water management initiatives for the Ganga and Brahmaputra river basins. The Indian Ministries of Power, Water Resources and External Affairs have recently approved the formation of a working group to coordinate NIB joint projects for the exploitation of common water resources in the Ganges Basin. The initiative will focus on hydropower generation and irrigation and will include the joint development and financing of projects. In addition to this initiative, a BIB working group held its first meeting on 18 April 2013 to discuss similar issues in the Brahmaputra Basin, which is expected to lay the groundwork for the formation of a committee to make decisions about hydropower development and water and power distribution. A collaborative approach to transboundary river basin manage will optimise benefits and reduce causes of harm to downstream states. The NIB initiative is expected to unfold the technically and geographically feasible means of augmenting and distributing water and power supplies and will collaboratively develop and finance identified projects.
The cross-boundary geographies and central role of Ganga and Brahmaputra basins in future water; energy and food security in South Asia endows them with considerable strategic importance. The Ganga river basin is the main source of fresh water for half of the populations of India and Bangladesh and for almost all of Nepal. It is also a major potential hydropower source. Nepal has the capacity to produce 40,000MW of economically viable hydropower. Both Nepal and its downstream neighbours stand to benefit from the production and sale of hydro-electricity.
The ‘Framework of Cooperation’ included the following objectives:
Food security:
- Improve and sustain food production;
- Help vulnerable communities gain better access to nutritious food;
Establish regional knowledge sharing and capacity building.
Freshwater systems
- Enhance practices that will minimize climate change induced disasters;
- Promote water efficiency and water efficient techniques – including modern and traditional methods;
- Increase knowledge sharing of climate change adaptation;
- Improve the regions understanding of the impacts of climate change on water resources.
Biodiversity: Create an interconnected mosaic of conservation spaces across the Eastern Himalayas;
- Ensure the sustainable use of biodiversity for poverty alleviation and income generation;
- Establish a regional mechanism for knowledge generation and sharing.
Energy security
- Enhance access to affordable and reliable ‘clean energy services for all’;
- Promote diversification of energy supply and the use of cleaner energy resources;
- Improved regional connectivity for electricity and natural gas;
Enhance energy efficiency; - Mainstream climate resilience in energy systems.
