Nepal-India Water Resources Cooperation: a Critical Review
Nepal – India Water Resources Cooperation: A Critical Review
Dahal Vaskar, Khanal Sonu, Mulmi Ravi, Pokharel Mohan, Pokharel Sunil
Abstract
Nepal has been touted to be rich in water resources and the proper utilization of her vast water resources and the intensification of the tourism industry are considered as one way ride to economic prosperity that the region of South Asia has not been able to boast of till date. This belief highly publicized, especially in the last half century, notwithstanding, the ground reality is that the state has not been able to utilize her water resources to meet the drinking water, irrigation, power and navigational requirements of her people. Her attempts to cooperate at the regional level with regards to trans-boundary rivers for proper management of her water resources also have not yielded any desired outcome. The scope of this paper is to analyze the status of the water resources of Nepal at the regional level. We will first start with the existing water sharing agreements between the states of the region. We will then focus on the Indo – Nepalese relationship – its past, present and future, attempts made and attempts failed. We will try to analyze the reasons behind the scenes that led to the present situation. We will also try suggest the remedial measures to correct the past blunders to the extent of practically possible correction. For this purpose we shall cite the experience earned through various regional as well as the international arrangements. We shall attempt to analyze why Indo – Nepalese relation has been jarred while the Indo – Bhutanese issues on the similar issues have led to the benefits of both of the nations.
Keywords:
GBM Basin of South Asia
The system of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna (GBM) basin that spans across five countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal is second only to the Amazon river basin with its 1.75 million square kilometer of catchment area. While
Dahal Vaskar, Khanal Sonu, Mulmi Ravi, Pokharel Mohan, Pokharel Sunil
Abstract
Nepal has been touted to be rich in water resources and the proper utilization of her vast water resources and the intensification of the tourism industry are considered as one way ride to economic prosperity that the region of South Asia has not been able to boast of till date. This belief highly publicized, especially in the last half century, notwithstanding, the ground reality is that the state has not been able to utilize her water resources to meet the drinking water, irrigation, power and navigational requirements of her people. Her attempts to cooperate at the regional level with regards to trans-boundary rivers for proper management of her water resources also have not yielded any desired outcome. The scope of this paper is to analyze the status of the water resources of Nepal at the regional level. We will first start with the existing water sharing agreements between the states of the region. We will then focus on the Indo – Nepalese relationship – its past, present and future, attempts made and attempts failed. We will try to analyze the reasons behind the scenes that led to the present situation. We will also try suggest the remedial measures to correct the past blunders to the extent of practically possible correction. For this purpose we shall cite the experience earned through various regional as well as the international arrangements. We shall attempt to analyze why Indo – Nepalese relation has been jarred while the Indo – Bhutanese issues on the similar issues have led to the benefits of both of the nations.
Keywords:
GBM Basin of South Asia
The system of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna (GBM) basin that spans across five countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal is second only to the Amazon river basin with its 1.75 million square kilometer of catchment area. While