The perennial presence of plastic waste in the Indus River and its tributaries is a recent addition to the already extensive list of threats to water quality, ecological health, and environmental sustainability in Pakistan.
Groundwater is arguably the most poorly understood water resource in Pakistan a country in which matters of water resources are hotly debated on a regular basis.
Competition over limited water resources is one of the main concerns for the coming decades. Although water issues alone have not been the sole trigger for warfare in the past, tensions over freshwater management and use represent one of the main concerns in political relations between riparian states and may exacerbate existing tensions, increase regional instability and social unrest. Previous studies made great efforts to understand how international water management problems were addressed by actors in a more cooperative or confrontational way.
Hydropower is a valuable renewable energy resource in India, which can help in climate change mitigation and meet the increasing energy demands. However, the crucial role of climate change on hydropower production in India remains unexplored.
The 1960 Indus Waters Treaty dividing the rivers of the Indus system between India and Pakistan has continued to function through two wars and numerous political tensions. Nevertheless, given mounting pressures on the Indus’ waters due to population growth, climate change and mismanagement, many call for abandonment or renegotiation of the treaty. This article situates these criticisms within the quantitative literature analyzing river treaties to demonstrate that the same critiques are applicable to many treaties.
This paper presents future climate and runoff projections for the South Asia region under the RCP8.5 scenario with climate change informed by 42 CMIP5 GCMs. Runoff is projected for 0.5° grids using hydrological models with future climate inputs obtained by empirically scaling the historical climate series.
Surface irrigation is a common pool resource characterized by asymmetric appropriation opportunities across upstream and downstream water users. Large canal systems are also predominantly managed by the state. This paper studies water allocation under an irrigation bureaucracy subject to corruption and rent-seeking.
This report provides comprehensive information about the glacial lakes of five major river basins of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) — Amu Darya, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Irrawaddy, including Mansarovar Interior Basin — representing the year 2005, which helps to fill the data gap of glacial lakes information in the region.
The objective of this study is to analyze heterogeneous perceptions of the relative importance of riverine ecosystem services to inform policy decisions. To improve allocation of scarce resources across competing uses, it is crucial to understand the values placed on various water uses.
