scholarly journals The challenge of multilateralism on the Ganges River

Water Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-176
Author(s):  
Jessica M. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
The Ganges

Abstract The Ganges River is traditionally governed bilaterally, with India at the centre of interactions. Bilateralism is arguable leveraged to India's advantage on a national and transboundary level. This is problematic as issues such as climate change require holistic and basin-wide solutions. Initiatives such as China's Belt and Road strategy are challenging Indian hegemony and pushing for multilateralism. The implications of this for transboundary water governance are investigated through discourse and the concept of discourse inertia. This shows how India is seeking to leverage its position in the sub-region through bilateralism and discursive tactics in response to China's increasing influence.

The Oxford Handbook of Water Politics and Policy

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Water Politics ◽  
Politics Of Scale ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Water Institutions ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
And Performance

This handbook gathers a diverse group of leading scholars of water politics and policy. Authors were tasked to present forward-looking chapters in their areas of expertise, flagging key trends in both research and practice. The volume is organized into six sections: poverty, rights, and ethics; food, energy, and water; water and the politics of scale; law, economics, and water management; the politics of transboundary water; and the politics of water knowledge. Cross-cutting themes include governance challenges rooted in the mobility, unpredictability, and public-goods dimensions of water; tensions and synergies among equity, efficiency, and sustainability; the distributive consequences of water governance; the design and performance of water institutions; and the implications of climate change.

scholarly journals Improving governance in transboundary cooperation in water and climate change adaptation

Water Policy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1014-1029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jos Timmerman ◽  
John Matthews ◽  
Sonja Koeppel ◽  
Daniel Valensuela ◽  
Niels Vlaanderen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Oecd Principles

Abstract Climate change adaptation in water management is a water governance issue. While neither climate change nor water respects national borders, adaptation in water management should be treated as a transboundary water governance issue. However, transboundary water management is, in essence, more complex than national water management because the water management regimes usually differ more between countries than within countries. This paper provides 63 lessons learned from almost a decade of cooperation on transboundary climate adaptation in water management under the UNECE Water Convention and puts these into the context of the OECD principles on water governance. It highlights that good water governance entails a variety of activities that are intertwined and cannot be considered stand-alone elements. The paper also shows that this wide variety of actions is needed to develop a climate change adaptation strategy in water management. Each of the lessons learned can be considered concrete actions connected to one or more of the OECD principles, where a range of actions may be needed to fulfil one principle. The paper concludes that developing climate change adaptation measures needs to improve in parallel the water governance system at transboundary scale.

scholarly journals Political Altruism of Transboundary Water Sharing

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anik Bhaduri ◽  
Edward B Barbier
Keyword(s):  
Natural Extension ◽  
Water Diversion ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Water Sharing ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Political Relationship ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
The Ganges

Abstract In the paper, using a political altruism model, we make an attempt to explain why an upstream country might agree to a treaty that recognizes and enforces the water claims of a downstream country. In a natural extension of the standard economic model, it is possible to explain the above phenomena, by allowing for altruism between countries. The altruistic concerns of the countries are dependent on other country's willingness to have a good political relationship. If both the countries maintain favorable political relations with one another, then the upstream country will care about the impacts of its water diversion on the downstream country's welfare. The paper also illustrates the case of water sharing of the Ganges River between India and Bangladesh. The Ganges River, like many other rivers in the world, ignores political boundaries. In Bangladesh, the final downstream country along the Ganges, freshwater availability depends on the share of water diverted by the upstream country, India. For decades, India and Bangladesh failed to resolve the water-sharing issues of the Ganges River. However, in 1996, both India and Bangladesh signed a major new agreement on water sharing (Ganges River Treaty) in an effort to resolve the dispute. Using the political altruism model developed in the paper, we examine why despite needing more water than is available under the treaty, India has adapted to shortages instead of resorting to conflict with Bangladesh.

Freshwater, climate change and adaptation in the Ganges River Basin

Water Policy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather R. Hosterman ◽  
Peter G. McCornick ◽  
Elizabeth J. Kistin ◽  
Bharat Sharma ◽  
Luna Bharati
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
The Ganges ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Ganges River Basin ◽  
Growth Economic

Climate change is one of the drivers of change in the Ganges River Basin, together with population growth, economic development and water management practices. These changing circumstances have a significant impact on key social and economic sectors of the basin, largely through changes in water quantity, quality and timing of availability. This paper evaluates the impact of water on changing circumstances in three sectors of the Ganges Basin – agriculture, ecosystems and energy. Given the inherent interconnectedness of these core sectors and the cross-cutting impact of changing circumstances on water resources, we argue that adaptation should not be viewed as a separate initiative, but rather as a goal and perspective incorporated into every level of planning and decision making. Adaptation to changing circumstances will need to be closely linked to water resource management and will require significant collaboration across the sectors.

scholarly journals Assessment of the Impacts of Spatial Water Resource Variability on Energy Planning in the Ganges River Basin under Climate Change Scenarios

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7273
Author(s):  
Bijon Kumer Mitra ◽  
Devesh Sharma ◽  
Xin Zhou ◽  
Rajarshi Dasgupta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
The Ganges ◽  
Ganges River Basin

Availability of water in the Ganges River basin has been recognized as a critical regional issue with a significant impact on drinking water supply, irrigation, as well as on industrial development, and ecosystem services in vast areas of South Asia. In addition, water availability is also strongly linked to energy security in the region. Hence, quantification of spatial availability of water resources is necessary to bolster reliable evaluation of the sustainability of future thermal power plants in the Ganges River basin. This study focuses on the risks facing existing and planned power plants regarding water availability, applying climate change scenarios at the sub-basin and district level up to 2050. For this purpose, this study develops an integrated assessment approach to quantify the water-energy nexus in four selected sub-basins of the Ganges, namely, Chambal, Damodar, Gandak, and Yamuna. The results of simulations using Soil and Water Assessment Tools (SWAT) showed that future water availability will increase significantly in the Chambal, Damodar, and Gandak sub-basins during the wet season, and will negligibly increase in the dry season, except for the Yamuna sub-basin, which is likely to experience a decrease in available water in both wet and dry seasons under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario. Changes in the water supply-demand ratio, due to climate change, indicated that water-related risks for future power plants would reduce in the Chambal and Damodar sub-basins, as there would be sufficient water in the future. For 19 out of 23 districts in the Chambal sub-basin, climate change will have a moderate-positive to high-positive impact on reducing the water risk for power plants by 2050. In contrast, existing and future power plants in the Yamuna and Gandak sub-basins will face increasing water risks. The proposed new thermal power installations, particularly in the Gandak sub-basin, are likely to face serious water shortages, which will adversely affect the stability of their operations. These results will stimulate and guide future research work to optimize the water-energy nexus, and will inform development and planning organizations, energy planning organizations, as well as investors, concerning the spatial distribution of water risks for future power plants so that more accurate decisions can be made on the location of future power plants.

scholarly journals The Ganges water treaty: 20 years of cooperation, on India's terms

Water Policy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 724-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberley Anh Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Critical Period ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Hydrological Data ◽  
Hydrological Hazards ◽  
Water Cooperation ◽  
International Water ◽  
Water Treaty ◽  
The Ganges

International cooperation has become a universal mandate for governing transboundary waterbodies. Diverse stakeholders promote cooperation as a desirable, if not indispensable, approach to achieving sustainable and equitable benefits from and for transboundary waterbodies. However, calls for international water cooperation operate from the presupposition that cooperation is an unambiguous concept. While cooperation appears self-evident and unproblematic, cases of formal cooperation reveal points of contestation about cooperation itself. For example, India and Bangladesh disagree about the extent to which cooperation is occurring over the Ganges River despite having penned a bilateral treaty that has been in force for 20 years. I analyze qualitative interviews and previously unpublished hydrological data to evaluate assertions that hydrological hazards in Southwestern Bangladesh result from India's activities and that India is failing to uphold the 1996 agreement. The analysis indicates that these assertions are true and false: India is broadly adhering to the Ganges Treaty but unilaterally withdraws water during a critical period of the dry season when regional livelihoods are most vulnerable. The study concludes that transboundary water cooperation as an abstract ideal overlooks the fact that cooperation as a practice emerges from and operates within specific historical, political, cultural, and economic contexts.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document