Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Will Conflicts over Water Scarcity Shape South Asia?s Future?
Nick Langton and Sagar Prasai
Climate change, combined with rapid population growth and urbanization, is placing intense pressure on South Asia?s most precious resource: water. Per capita water availability in the region has decreased by 70 percent since 1950, according to the Asian Development Bank. Compounding the problem, rainfall intensity and variability make South Asia highly susceptible to floods, droughts, and disasters. Over the last decade, devastating floods have displaced millions of people in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Changing rainfall patterns and retreating glaciers are expected to further exacerbate the situation in the years ahead.
South Asia is home to three of the most densely populated river basins in the world?the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra?which support an estimated 700 million people. The basins straddle national borders, making them a natural source of contention between neighboring countries. As water scarcity intensifies, effective management of these river basins is increasingly critical to long-term peace, stability, and economic development in the region, which houses a third of the world?s poor. Tragically, nationalism and narrow technical approaches to water management hinder this objective.
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http://csis.org/files/publication/120323_WadhwaniChair_IssuePerspective.pdf
Nick Langton and Sagar Prasai
Climate change, combined with rapid population growth and urbanization, is placing intense pressure on South Asia?s most precious resource: water. Per capita water availability in the region has decreased by 70 percent since 1950, according to the Asian Development Bank. Compounding the problem, rainfall intensity and variability make South Asia highly susceptible to floods, droughts, and disasters. Over the last decade, devastating floods have displaced millions of people in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Changing rainfall patterns and retreating glaciers are expected to further exacerbate the situation in the years ahead.
South Asia is home to three of the most densely populated river basins in the world?the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra?which support an estimated 700 million people. The basins straddle national borders, making them a natural source of contention between neighboring countries. As water scarcity intensifies, effective management of these river basins is increasingly critical to long-term peace, stability, and economic development in the region, which houses a third of the world?s poor. Tragically, nationalism and narrow technical approaches to water management hinder this objective.
...
http://csis.org/files/publication/120323_WadhwaniChair_IssuePerspective.pdf