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Water Issues in Himalayan South Asia Amit Ranjan Editor Water Issues in Himalayan South Asia Water Issues in Himalayan South Asia Amit Ranjan Editor Water Issues in Himalayan South Asia Internal Challenges, Disputes and Transboundary Tensions Editor Amit Ranjan Institute of South Asian Studies National University of Singapore Singapore, Singapore ISBN 978-981-32-9613-8 ISBN 978-981-32-9614-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9614-5 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affliations. Cover illustration: Marina Lohrbach_shutterstock.com Cover design by eStudio Calamar This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore PREFACE Defning a region is very diffcult task. It is not static. Every scholar has own vague idea about it. Changing technology, geopolitical events, population movement and many other dynamics make one to defne or re-defne and construct or de-construct a region.1 South Asia is one such region. Since the British colonial period, this region has been defned or re-defned to suit the political and academic interests of the individuals. For example, despite contiguity, Myanmar is not considered as a part of South Asia by majority of scholars and political commentators because it is not an active member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), a regional organization that defnes the politi- cal boundary of the region. However, a small number of scholars and commentators who give importance to history, contiguity and other related factors argue that Myanmar is very much part of South Asia. Likewise, many in Pakistan argues that the country is part of the West Asia instead of South Asia because of religious bonding. Then, there is a growing use of a term “extended neighbourhood” in India.2 This entails 1Hagrety, D. T., & Hagerty, H. G. (2007). Reconstitution and Reconstruction of Afghanistan. In D. T. Hagrety (Ed.), South Asia in World Politics (pp. 113–133). Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, and Oxford: Rowman and Littlefeld. 2Shekhar, V. (2019). Rise of India’s ‘Extended Neighbourhood’ Worldview. In A. Ranjan (Ed.), India in South Asia: Challenges and Management (pp. 235–252). Singapore: Springer. v vi PREFACE comprehensive engagements with the countries falling within the ambit of “extended neighbourhood”. The focus is also on extending the geo- graphical scope of the region by terming it Southern Asia which includes countries such as Myanmar, etc. Physically, as a region, Himalayan South Asia comprises north, east and northeast India, parts of Pakistan and Nepal and Bhutan. Afghanistan falls in Hindu Kush Himalayan which is considered as a part of Greater Himalayas. There is almost no presence of Himalaya in the deltaic Bangladesh, but the Chittagong Hill Tract is considered by some geographers as a range within the Greater Himalayan system.3 Despite such differences, all these countries depend on Himalayan and any action in its mountain ranges affects them. In South Asia, a large part of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and entire Nepal and Bhutan depends on the waters of Himalayan river system. Even parts of China and Myanmar depend on waters from Himalayan rivers. Some of the major river systems which fow in this region are Indus River System, Ganga River System, etc. As respective river systems intrinsically link the countries falling in their catchment areas, they can be an important factor to construct and defne a region. In this work, although the editor has not made an attempt to theorize a region by taking water as an impor- tant factor, one of the objectives of this study is to at least sketch such defnition. In this book, instead of looking at Himalayan South Asia as a region which lies in the foothills of the Himalaya, water issues of the entire State have been dealt with because of four reasons: First, the River systems which originate in the Himalaya affect a large part of the State and not only the catchment areas. For example, Bangladesh is a deltaic country but the rivers such as Teesta, Ganga and others which originate in the Himalaya and are part of the Himalayan river system affect the larger part or almost the entire country. As these rivers are also transboundary in nature, they are cause for Bangladesh’s water disputes with India. Second, the water stress or scarcity or severe water scarcity in one part of the country has serious impact in other parts because of signifcance of water-related economic activities such as agriculture. For example, whenever production of grains are relatively low due to decline in water 3Banglapedia: National Encyclopaedia of Bangladesh. Himalayas, The. http://en.bangla- pedia.org/index.php?title Himalayas,_The. Accessed June 21, 2019. = PREFACE vii availability in Punjab in Pakistan, it affects the entire country. Lower pro- duction negatively hits the agriculture-dependent economy and increases the prices of food grains. Third, disputes and tensions on sharing of waters from same river are mainly between the areas or units which lie in same foodplains and catchment areas. However, these catchment areas and foodplain are also part of the different sovereign States. This make the States instead of people living in those catchment areas and food- plain to make policies or take decisions on those waters. Once the state is engaged, it becomes an issue between the two sovereigns. For exam- ple, India–Pakistan tensions over sharing the waters from the Indus River System also aggravate water nationalism among people from the Central or South India who have nothing to do with waters from those rivers. Fourth, water stress in one region affects the water behaviour of a country in different regions. For example, to deal with the water stress in its northern region, China is engaged in transfer of waters through South-to-North Water Diversion Project/South to North Water Transfer Project (SNWDP/SNWTP) or Nanshuibeidiao. The third line in this project called the Great Western Line is a matter of concern for India. If this line gets fully implemented, it is expected that waters from the Himalayan river system would also be transferred to different parts of China. Likewise, to deal with the water stress in different parts of the country, India is also engaged in interlinking some of its major rivers. This includes the Himalayan rivers. Keeping this reason in mind, a chap- ter dealing with water disputes in India and another one which discusses politics of regional water management in China have been included in this book. Unfortunately, despite having a number of large river systems, Himalayan South Asia and China are not water secure. As shown in the The United Nations World Water Development Report 2018, some of the zones in South Asia may face severe water scarcity by 2050.4 One of the reasons for the scarcity is rise in population which increases the gap between demand and supply. In Himalayan South Asia, India has a pop- ulation of about about 1.35 billion, Pakistan’s population as more than 216 million people, Bangladesh has about 163 million people, Nepal 4The United Nations World Water Development Report 2018. Nature-Based Solutions for Water. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/fles/resources/261424e.pdf. Accessed June 12, 2019, p. 12. viii PREFACE has about 28.61 million people and Bhutan’s population is 763,092. This is likely to increase further in coming years. Rising population will increase the demands for food, industrial goods and waters for domestic consumption. Like other parts of the world, in this region too, about 70% of total available waters are used for agriculture activities, 20% for industrial production and 10% for domestic consumption.5 This percent- age may vary a bit from one country to the other; however, the ratio of sector wise consumption out of total available waters in terms of quantity—maximum to minimum—remains the same. Besides population, due to the phenomenon of climate change, gla- ciers—a source to most of the rivers of the region—are melting. This is causing foods even in non-rainy season. The phenomenon of climate change is also a reason for more precipitation during the rainy season which leads to severe foods. However, not all glaciers are melting. There are studies which claim that eastern and central Himalayas are retreat- ing but western Himalayas, source of most Pakistani rivers, one of the severely stressed countries of the region, are stable and even increasing in size.
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