Competition for water resource in the Brahmaputra river basin- issues of concern

Abstract

The River Brahmaputra, which is essentially a transboundary river; originates in the Angsi glacier, located on the northern side of the Himalayas in Burang County of Tibet and is known as Yarlung Tsangpo. It flows for about 2,900 km across southern Tibet to break through the great Himalayas in great gorges (including the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon) and into Arunachal Pradesh, where it is known as Dihang or Siang. It flows southwest through the Assam Valley as Brahmaputra and south through Bangladesh as the Jamuna (not to be mistaken with Yamuna of India). In the vast Ganges Delta, it merges with the Padma, the popular name of the river Ganges in Bangladesh and finally the Meghna and from here it is known as Meghna before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. In the past China and India fought a war over contested territory through which the river flows and Bangladesh being at the tail end faces human security pressures in this basin that will inevitably be magnified by upstream river practices. Despite these implications there is no bilateral or multilateral water management and water sharing accord that exists in the Brahmaputra basin. Moreover, this basin has received little scholarly attention compared with other river basins such as the Ganges, Indus, Mekong and the Amazon. Controversial dam-building activities and water diversion plans could threaten regional stability and trigger tension in the region. Thus, development, use and management of this transboundary water resource calls for an integrated approach within the conceptual framework of Integrated River Basin Management guided by transboundary water acts or any such other instrument. An attempt has therefore been made through this paper to provide greater understanding of the equities and drivers fueling water insecurity in the Brahmaputra River basin. Conclusions have been drawn and recommendations made based on desk research for various key stakeholders to consider at the sub-national, bilateral and multilateral levels to increase co-operation in the basin. The issues discussed may be of importance to policymakers, academicians, civil engineering students to discuss steps that could help manage and resolve competition of the water resources of the river Brahmaputra. This could, given the right impetus would go a long way in strengthening regional security on one hand and ensure availability of the basin’s water for posterity on the other. Above all, it is strongly felt that a sustainable Brahmaputra basin ecosystem would only be possible to be maintained through this integrated approach in addition to maintaining bio-diversity of the region as a whole.