Water managers across the Himalayan region will confront a host of overlapping socio-economic, environmental, and policy challenges as they strive to fulfill their societies’ future water needs.  In many of the great rivers that rise in the Hindu Kush Himalayan mountains – the Amu Darya, Ganges, Indus, Yellow – total withdrawals nearly equal or even surpass long-term flow balances. Hundreds of millions of people today reside in basins that are essentially “closed.” All of their waters are already being used to meet various human demands and maintain vital ecosystems with little to no spare capacity left over.

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