The Himalayan region is home to some of the greatest river systems in the world including the Indus, Ganges, and the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra. These river systems harbor extraordinary biodiversity and sustain the livelihoods of billions. However, rapidly growing populations, sharply rising economic and agricultural demands, and climate change have immensely intensified water stress throughout the region. Member countries are racing to build dams to meet national irrigation and energy needs, but this process takes place in the absence of adequate cooperative norms and with far-reaching ecological and environmental consequences. The Water Security in the Himalayan region project aims to foster trust-building efforts between riparian states, engender a better understanding of hydrodiplomacy, and advance the water-food-energy nexus as shared water resources fast become the defining element in the region’s economic and geopolitical landscape.
In concert with our cooperation partners, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS,) we have also extended our project’s scope to discuss challenges faced by other key water-stressed regions in the world such as Central Asia and the Middle East & North Africa so to provide a platform for capacity building and collective knowledge sharing on transboundary river water governance.
