This book presents multi-disciplinary analyses of the environmental effects and implications in Bangladesh and India of the Ganges water diversion. The analyses demonstrate that the downstream part of the Ganges River basin in Bangladesh, which has a sensitive ecosystem, has become very vulnerable to water diversion and as a result it has caused significant damage to many economic sectors and ecosystems. Areas upstream of the Farakka Barrage in India have become more vulnerable to floods and riverbank erosion. The Kolkata Port has marginally benefited from the water diversion. In the Hooghly River estuary, populations of flora and fauna have thrived. In the downstream areas of Bangladesh costly adaptation measures have been adopted and in many cases damages are irreparable. A regional cooperative framework is presented to foster water resources and environmental development in the Ganges River basin.

This book deals with environmental effects on both sides of the border between Bangladesh and India caused by the Ganges water diversion. This issue came to my attention in early 1976 when news media in Bangladesh and overseas, began publications of articles on the unilateral withdrawal of a huge quantity of water from the Ganges River through the commissioning of the Farakka Barrage in India. I first pursued the subject professionally in 1984 while working as a contributor for Bangladesh Today, Holiday and New Nation. During the next two decades, I followed the protracted hydro-political negotiations between the riparian countries in the Ganges basin, and I traveled extensively to observe the environmental and ecological changes in Bangladesh as well as India that occurred due to the water diversion. The Ganges, one of the longest rivers of the world originates at the Gangotri glacier in the Himalayas and flows across the plains of North India. Eventually the river splits into two main branches and empties into the Bay of Bengal. The conflict of diversion and sharing of the Ganges water arose in the middle of the last century when the government of India decided to implement a barrage at Farakka to resolve a navigation problem at the Kolkata Port.

Présentation de l'éditeur : "Despite Asia's large share of global water resources, and the importance of its water for sustaining one of the largest agrarian populations in the world, Asia's trans boundary water resource management regimes are poorly developed. There are only two working international regimes in South and South-east Asia: the Mekong and the Indus regimes. The remaining international watercourses in Asia are used by riparian countries in a self-interested manner, without much consideration for the interests of other states or for the environment. These national interests do not often represent the interests and needs of the local people. This book is divided into three Parts. Part I discusses the different contexts of law-making in the industrialized west and in agrarian societies in Asia, as well as the changing context of law-making following the emergence of the concept of sustainable development. Part II discusses the regime of international watercourses. Part III of the book presents two case studies in Asia: the Mekong and the Ganges. The main argument is that in the absence of public participation in decision-making and resource management, the basin states revert to using the watercourses according to the principles of the classical regime. The result, so far, has been unsustainable development, environmental degradation and growing poverty of local user communities."

This study assessed the variability of flows under present and ‘naturalized’ basin conditions in the Upper Ganges Basin (UGB). Furthermore, the PRECIS regional climate model (RCM) was used to generate climate projections for the UGB, with subsequent simulations of future river flows. Results show that the annual average precipitation, actual evapotranspiration (ET) and net water yields of the whole basin were 1,192 mm, 416 mm and 615 mm, respectively. Precipitation, ET and water yields were found to be higher in the forested and mountainous upper areas of the UGB. On an annual average, present-day flows throughout UGB are about 2-8% lower than under naturalized conditions. Dry and wet season flows under climate change (CC) scenario A2 are lower than that under present climate conditions at upstream locations, but higher at downstream locations of UGB. Flows under CC scenario B2 are systematically higher and lower than that under CC scenario A2 during dry and wet seasons, respectively.

The discourse on the human right to water presents deliberations on the concept, content and rationale for the right, with little attention to the practical question of translating the right into reality. This book aims to fill this void by focusing on ‘realization’ of the right by its holders, examining how effective the mechanisms are for ‘implementing’ the right in enabling its universal realization. In a quest to answer this question, the book draws a conceptual differentiation between ‘implementation’ and ‘realization’ of the right, arguing that unlike implementation - which is an objective process of creation and implementation of measures such as legal frameworks, institutional structures or policy and action guidelines, realization of the right is a subjective process that extends much beyond. It takes shape within specific contextual settings which may include varied situations, yet remains neglected in the related academic and action forums. This book attempts to address this void by discussing some of the most significant contexts and the underlying problems and concerns that strongly influence realization of the human right to water. It contends that if the right is to be truly realized, these different contexts - which can be further classified as 'objective' and 'subjective' - must be understood, analysed and appropriately addressed before framing and implementing relevant action. The book further situates the human right to water discourse in a broader interdisciplinary perspective, expanding its scope beyond the narrower legal dimensions, linking it to the wider field of water resources management/governance. Through the novel ideas it proposes, the book makes an innovative and unique contribution in the field of human right to water which is of great scientific value.

It is beyond doubt that the interconnectedness between food, energy, water security and environmental sustainability exists and is getting amplified with increased globalization. It has been recognized that efforts to address only one part of a systemic problem by neglecting other inherently interlinked aspects may not lead to desirable and sustainable outcomes. In this perspective, policy- and decision- making requires a nexus approach that reduces trade-offs and builds synergies across sectors, and helps to reduce costs and increase benefits for humans and nature compared to independent approaches to the management of water, energy, food and the environment. In the past, work related to the Nexus has looked at the interactions between water and food or water and energy, but there has been a reluctance to bring forward a broader systematic perspective that captures the multiple sectors and resource dependencies while understanding its cost to the environment if we neglect these linkages. This book is a compilation of thirteen papers published previously as a special issue of Water International, contains significant pieces of work on the W-E-F nexus focusing on relevant tools, solutions and governance at local and broader human scales.

This book explores the Sundarbans eco-region from a trans-boundary perspective, examining the cross-country interaction that helps planners to develop more efficient coastal zone planning for the delta. The dynamic ecosystem of the Sundarbans is considered the largest coastal delta in the world. It is located in the Bay of Bengal and spans across Bangladesh and West Bengal (India). Featuring chapters by experts from a range of fields, it addresses (i) risk factor analyses, and the geohydrological, climatic, natural, socio-economic, and anthropological factors related to the Sundarbans; (ii) strategies for sustainability in natural resource management in trans-boundary Sundarbans, cutting across political boundaries; (iii) improved agriculture, fisheries, and forestry practices and their impacts on the socio-economy for livelihood security; and (iv) a future road map for improvements. This book will be of value to those working in academia, as well as to experts and professionals in coastal zone planning and management.