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Transboundary water issues: The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin

Abstract

Sharing of water of transboundary rivers among riparian nations has become a cause of major concern in different parts of the globe for quite sometime. The issue in the recent decades has been transformed into a source of international tensions and disputes resulting in strained relationships between riparian nations. Conflicts over sharing of water of the international rivers, like the Tigris, Euphrates and Jordan in the Middle East, the Nile in Northern Africa, the Mekong in South-East Asia, the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna in the Indian subcontinent are widely known. The present paper discusses the water sharing -issue in the Ganga- Brahmaputra-Meghna basin located in the Indian sub continent covering five sovereign countries (namely India, Nepal, China, Bhutan and Bangladesh). Rapidly growing population, expanding agricultural and industrial activities besides the impacts of climate change have resulted in stressed condition in the arena of fresh water availability in the basin. Again occurrence of arsenic in sub-surface water in the lower reaches of the basin in India and Bangladesh has also added a new dimension to the problem. All the rivers of the GBM system exhibit wide variations between peak and lean flows as major part of the basin belongs to the monsoon region, where  More>>
Authors:
Roy, Debasri; Goswami, A B; Bose, Balaram . E-mail:debasri-royl @yahoo.co.in [1] 
  1. Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, (INDIA)
Publication Date:
Jul 01, 2004
Product Type:
Conference
Report Number:
INIS-MK-05002
Resource Relation:
Conference: Conference on Water Observation and Information System for Decision Support, Ohrid (Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of), 25-29 May 2004; Other Information: Topic 2: Hydrological cycle and water balances; PBD: 2004; Related Information: In: BALWOIS: Abstracts, by Morell, Morell (ed.) [Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Montpellier (France)]; Todorovik, Olivija (ed.) [Hydrometeorological Service, Skopje (Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of)]; Dimitrov, Dobri (ed.) [National Institute of Hydrometeorology of Albania, Tirana (Albania)] [and others], 438 pages.
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; ARSENIC; CLIMATIC CHANGE; FLOODS; FRESH WATER; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; MONSOONS; RIVERS; WATER POLICY; WATER REQUIREMENTS; WATER RESOURCES; WATER RIGHTS; WATER USE
OSTI ID:
20619570
Country of Origin:
Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of
Language:
English
Other Identifying Numbers:
Other: ISBN 9989-110-26-3; TRN: MK0500122063110
Availability:
Available from the Web Site: www.balwois.net; Full text available in abstract form only
Submitting Site:
INIS
Size:
page(s) 73
Announcement Date:
Aug 21, 2005

Citation Formats

Roy, Debasri, Goswami, A B, and Bose, Balaram . E-mail:debasri-royl @yahoo.co.in. Transboundary water issues: The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin. Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of: N. p., 2004. Web.
Roy, Debasri, Goswami, A B, & Bose, Balaram . E-mail:debasri-royl @yahoo.co.in. Transboundary water issues: The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin. Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of.
Roy, Debasri, Goswami, A B, and Bose, Balaram . E-mail:debasri-royl @yahoo.co.in. 2004. "Transboundary water issues: The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin." Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of.
@misc{etde_20619570,
title = {Transboundary water issues: The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin}
author = {Roy, Debasri, Goswami, A B, and Bose, Balaram . E-mail:debasri-royl @yahoo.co.in}
abstractNote = {Sharing of water of transboundary rivers among riparian nations has become a cause of major concern in different parts of the globe for quite sometime. The issue in the recent decades has been transformed into a source of international tensions and disputes resulting in strained relationships between riparian nations. Conflicts over sharing of water of the international rivers, like the Tigris, Euphrates and Jordan in the Middle East, the Nile in Northern Africa, the Mekong in South-East Asia, the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna in the Indian subcontinent are widely known. The present paper discusses the water sharing -issue in the Ganga- Brahmaputra-Meghna basin located in the Indian sub continent covering five sovereign countries (namely India, Nepal, China, Bhutan and Bangladesh). Rapidly growing population, expanding agricultural and industrial activities besides the impacts of climate change have resulted in stressed condition in the arena of fresh water availability in the basin. Again occurrence of arsenic in sub-surface water in the lower reaches of the basin in India and Bangladesh has also added a new dimension to the problem. All the rivers of the GBM system exhibit wide variations between peak and lean flows as major part of the basin belongs to the monsoon region, where 80%-90 % of annual rainfall is concentrated in 4-5 months of South -West monsoon in the subcontinent. Over and above, the rivers in GBM system carry huge loads of sediments along with the floodwater and receive huge quantum of different kinds of wastes contaminating the water of the rivers. Again high rate of sedimentation of the major rivers and their tributaries have been affecting not only the carrying capacity of the rivers but also drastically reduced their retention capacity. Almost every year during monsoon about 27% and nearly 60% of the GBM basin lying in India and Bangladesh respectively experience flood. The year round navigation in many rivers has also been affected. All these have serious impacts on the economy of this geo politically sensitive region. It was found that the total water resource of the GBM river system would be unable to meet the prevailing water requirements of the basin, not to speak of the rise in demand of water in the future. It was established that the judicious water demand management and effective control of the over-use, misuse and abuse of water in the respective river basins in each country should get preference over competition for access to additional supply of water to meet the requirements and also adoption of technology which helps that goal to achieve should be made.(Author)}
place = {Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of}
year = {2004}
month = {Jul}
}