Water Politics in Asia

Abstract

Transboundary water courses abound in Asia, which is experiencing risks with regards to the use of water and the sustainability of water ecology. Many of the Asian states are facing growing pressures to react to global change, with a high level of both poverty and population growth. Asia’s water politics have been explored from a range of perspectives, reflecting the complicated discourses, processes, and narratives when the global South respond to water-related challenges. Within these nations, the low economic development level and the underdevelopment of key democratic institutions as well as limited knowledge in water management have posed challenges to the region to setting up efficient institutional arrangements to promote sustainable development. The geographical conditions make the sharing of international rivers more complicated. Large-scale rivers are often found to run through a number of countries, resulting in each state possessing asymmetric interests in the shared water resources. Vulnerability in the river basin is often unevenly spread among riparian states, adding to the difficulty of countries’ peacefully resolving tensions over the shared water resources. Moreover, regional security in South Asia is considered to be unstable and rapidly changing. Some international rivers run near national borders, complicating the existing border disputes in some places. Questions are raised if the region has developed strong resilience when faced with water-related risks such as water scarcity and degradation.