India, Pakistan and cooperation along the Indus River system

Zawahri, Neda

doi:10.2166/wp.2009.010

Cited by 36 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Disputes are managed primarily through regular meetings of the engineers and officials that make up the two national sections of the commission (Zawahri, 2009b). Monitoring development projects in the Indus river system by PIC has eased fears of cheating between India and Pakistan (including the confirmation of accuracy of all exchanged data) and helped promote compliance with the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (Zawahri, 2009a).…”

Section: International Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Indus basin in the framework of current and future water resources management

Laghari

Vanham

Rauch

2012

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

191

112

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Abstract. The Indus basin is one of the regions in the world that is faced with major challenges for its water sector, due to population growth, rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, environmental degradation, unregulated utilization of the resources, inefficient water use and poverty, all aggravated by climate change. The Indus Basin is shared by 4 countriesPakistan, India, Afghanistan and China. With a current population of 237 million people which is projected to increase to 319 million in 2025 and 383 million in 2050, already today water resources are abstracted almost entirely (more than 95 % for irrigation). Climate change will result in increased water availability in the short term. However in the long term water availability will decrease. Some current aspects in the basin need to be re-evaluated. During the past decades water abstractions -and especially groundwater extractionshave augmented continuously to support a rice-wheat system where rice is grown during the kharif (wet, summer) season (as well as sugar cane, cotton, maize and other crops) and wheat during the rabi (dry, winter) season. However, the sustainability of this system in its current form is questionable. Additional water for domestic and industrial purposes is required for the future and should be made available by a reduction in irrigation requirements. This paper gives a comprehensive listing and description of available options for current and future sustainable water resources management (WRM) within the basin. Sustainable WRM practices include both water supply management and water demand management options. Water supply management options include: (1) reservoir management as the basin is characterised by a strong seasonal behaviour in water availability (monsoon and meltwater) and water demands; (2) water quality conservation and investment in wastewater infrastructure; (3) the use of alternative water resources like the recycling of wastewater and desalination; (4) land use planning and soil conservation as well as flood management, with a focus on the reduction of erosion and resulting sedimentation as well as the restoration of ecosystem services like wetlands and natural floodplains. Water demand management options include: (1) the management of conjunctive use of surface and groundwater; as well as (2) the rehabilitation and modernization of existing infrastructure. Other demand management options are: (3) the increase of water productivity for agriculture; (4) crop planning and diversification including the critical assessment of agricultural export, especially (basmati) rice; (5) economic instruments and (6) changing food demand patterns and limiting post-harvest losses.

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Section: International Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Indus basin in the framework of current and future water resources management

Laghari

Vanham

Rauch

2012

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

191

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This may not be that surprising, given the overall consensus that international rivers seem to be a basis for cooperation rather than conflict. Moreover, once established, water cooperation regimes seem to be robust over time, even between states engaged in conflict over other issues (Yoffe and Wolf 1999;Alam 2002;Zawahri 2009a). We also find little evidence that the design of treaties is a function of power, a point of special importance in the debate between neoliberal and neorealist theories.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…In other cases, the information will help reassure the treaty participants that the signatories are complying with treaty provisions. Monitoring hydrological development projects in the Indus river system by the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), for example, has eased fears of cheating between India and Pakistan and helped promote compliance with the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (Zawahri 2009a).…”

Section: Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These costs often stem from a normative or ideological attachment to national sovereignty (Kahler 2000). Zawahri (2009a) notes that states often resist integrated river basin management because it can impinge on political sovereignty. States may therefore resist institutional oversight not for strict utilitarian reasons but because they simply reject the delegation of authority to international organizations on principle.…”

Section: River Treaty Design and Institutionalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Institutional Design of Riparian Treaties

Tir

Stinnett

2011

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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International agreements governing rivers vary considerably in whether they contain institutional provisions for joint monitoring, conflict resolution, enforcement, and/or the delegation of authority to intergovernmental organizations. This article develops an explanation for why some river management treaties include more institutional provisions while others contain fewer, if any. The authors argue that certain types of issues related to river use-water quantity, water quality, and navigation-tend to be difficult to manage and prone to noncompliance. When forming treaties to address these specific issues, states will be more likely to include institutional provisions. The authors test the link between these river use issues and institutional design using a data set of 315 river treaties signed since 1950. The results show that highly contentious issues-and in particular water quantity and navigation-have a greater effect on the institutional design of river treaties than contextual and power politics factors.Population growth, pollution, economic development, and climate change are putting increasing strain on the earth's rivers. The fact that international river basins cover roughly 47 percent of the world's surface (Wolf 2007) suggests that the use

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“…An example of how this has worked, with good success, is the Indus River basin. Zawahri (2009), in discussing the Permanent Indus Commission, states "The commission's ability to monitor development of the shared river system has permitted it to ease member states" fear of cheating and confirm the accuracy of all exchanged data. Finally, its conflict resolution mechanisms have permitted the commission to negotiate settlements to disputes and prevent defection from cooperation.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharing water and benefits in transboundary river basins

Arjoon

Tilmant

Herrmann

2016

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The equitable sharing of benefits in transboundary river basins is necessary to solve disputes among riparian countries and to reach a consensus on basin-wide development and management activities. Benefit-sharing arrangements must be collaboratively developed to be perceived not only as efficient, but also as equitable in order to be considered acceptable to all riparian countries. The current literature mainly describes what is meant by the term benefit sharing in the context of transboundary river basins and discusses this from a conceptual point of view, but falls short of providing practical, institutional arrangements that ensure maximum economic welfare as well as collaboratively developed methods for encouraging the equitable sharing of benefits. In this study, we define an institutional arrangement that distributes welfare in a river basin by maximizing the economic benefits of water use and then sharing these benefits in an equitable manner using a method developed through stakeholder involvement. We describe a methodology in which (i) a hydrological model is used to allocate scarce water resources, in an economically efficient manner, to water users in a transboundary basin, (ii) water users are obliged to pay for water, and (iii) the total of these water charges is equitably redistributed as monetary compensation to users in an amount determined through the application of a sharing method developed by stakeholder input, thus based on a stakeholder vision of fairness, using an axiomatic approach. With the proposed benefit-sharing mechanism, the efficiency-equity trade-off still exists, but the extent of the imbalance is reduced because benefits are maximized and redistributed according to a key that has been collectively agreed upon by the participants. The whole system is overseen by a river basin authority. The methodology is applied to the Eastern Nile River basin as a case study. The described technique not only ensures economic efficiency, but may also lead to more equitable solutions in the sharing of benefits in transboundary river basins because the definition of the sharing rule is not in question, as would be the case if existing methods, such as game theory, were applied, with their inherent definitions of fairness.

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India, Pakistan and cooperation along the Indus River system

Cited by 36 publications

References 41 publications

The Indus basin in the framework of current and future water resources management

The Indus basin in the framework of current and future water resources management

The Institutional Design of Riparian Treaties

Sharing water and benefits in transboundary river basins

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