International water law and hydropolitics: an enquiry into the water conflict between India and Nepal
International water law and hydropolitics: an enquiry into the water conflict between India and Nepal
Harsh Vasani School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
ABSTRACT
Despite an open border, shared culture, religious ties and strong people-to-people connectivity, governance of transboundary water resources has often led to diplomatic conflicts between India and Nepal. It is not unusual for hydro-development projects between the two to run into delays or opposition, despite great domestic need for water and electricity in both countries. Using fieldwork in Delhi and Kathmandu, this paper illustrates the factors that impede cooperation between the two sides on shared rivers and how the inadequacies of international water laws manifest themselves in bilateral negotiations on water governance. The paper locates the benefit-sharing framework in international water law using the case studies of the Pancheshwar and the SaptaKoshi–SunKoshi Project in the Mahakali and Koshi basins.
ARTICLE HISTORY Received 2 November 2021 Accepted 1 February 2023
KEYWORDS Benefit-sharing; hydropower; Pancheshwar; Koshi; UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC)
Introduction
Governance of transboundary water resources originating in the Himalayas and flowing through Nepal into India has been a source of bitterness and animosity between the two states. The Koshi and Gandak treaties signed by India and Nepal in 1954 and 1959, respectively, had to be amended and revised in 1966 and 1964, respectively, following protests by Nepal. The provisions of the Mahakali Treaty, signed in 1996 and ratified by the Nepali Parliament in the same year, have not yet been realized. Despite an open border, strong people-to-people connections, and a sense of shared culture, religion and heritage, tensions over transboundary waters have often led to widespread hostility against India among Nepali citizens, and water is also cited as the reason for ruptures in the bilateral relations (Bhushal, 2014; Gyawali & Dixit, 1999; Swain, 2018). Based on fieldwork in India and Nepal, I explain how the inadequacies and incongruities of the UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC) stifle cooperation between the two states on multi-purpose reservoirs in the Mahakali and Koshi basins. In particular, I show how international water law fails to provide a resolution on issues such as benefit-sharing, prior versus equitable rights, equal versus equitable use, and calculating benefits. It is becoming increasingly essential to address the inadequacies of international water law as states turn to dams to address climate change impacts (Ahlers et al., 2015; Dye, 2019; Gerlak et al., 2019; Karambelkar, 2017). Having saturated domestic rivers, often enough these dams are on shared, transboundary rivers (Elhance, 1999). Globally, there are 286 transboundary rivers and lake basins (UN-Water, n.d.), and 468 aquifer systems outside the EU, Switzerland and Norway (IGRAC, 2021). At least 153 countries have territories within these transboundary rivers and lakes, and almost every country has territory with a transboundary aquifer. These water resources face challenges arising from increasing population, urbanization, industrialization, degradation of the environment and hydrological variability (UN-Water, n.d.). As we will see, asymmetrical power equations over these transboundary water resources governance and negotiations are further complicated due to ambiguous and ineffectual international laws
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International water law and hydropolitics: an enquiry into the water conflict between India and Nepal Harsh Vasani
To cite this article: Harsh Vasani (2023) International water law and hydropolitics: an enquiry into the water conflict between India and Nepal, Water International, 48:2, 259-281, DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2023.2176595
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2023.2176595
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