Conflict Resolution and Institutional Arrangements for Flood Disaster Management on Indo Nepal Fringe: Focus on Kosi Basin (original) (raw)

Fiber optic sensing of liquid refractive index

Sensors and Actuators B-chemical, 2007

An optical fiber, partially stripped of its cladding is shown to sense refractive index of a liquid in which the uncladded sensing region is immersed, to a high degree of precision and over a wide range of refractive index. The slope of sensor response is found to be non linear, can have either sign and can change sign at around refractive index of the fiber. The sensitivity of the sensor to refractive index change is dependent on cladding thickness and is a maximum at an intermediate thickness value. It is insensitive to the presence of absorption at the wavelength at which refractive index is being measured and to the chemical nature of the solute. Experiments designed to show that cladding modes are responsible for sensing are described.

Water Scarcity in Bangladesh: Transboundary Rivers, Conflict and Cooperation

In Part 1 of this report we present the two major bilateral treaties on river water in South Asia, i.e. the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan and the Ganges Water Treaty between India and Bangladesh, as well as the various water cooperation agreements between India and Nepal, to illustrate the successes, failures and ongoing challenges of South Asian transboundary river water management. The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between India and Pakistan was signed in 1960 and recognized as a landmark of cooperation between the two countries. The treaty resolved a 12-year dispute between the signatories regarding their respective rights over the waters of the Indus Basin, and has since survived three wars between India and Pakistan. The key framework for water-sharing between India and Bangladesh is the Ganges treaty on riverine water-sharing, signed in 1996. This treaty was also the outcome of a longstanding dispute over sharing of transboundary river water, especially following construction of the Farakka Barrage by India in West Bengal around 16 km upstream of the Bangladesh border. The Ganges Water Treaty assumes equitable sharing of river waters, subject to an impact review by either party. However, when it became evident that the flow at Farakka was far less than anticipated in the treaty, further negotiations were required to enable a compromise beyond the treaty’s initial agreement. Despite agreements being reached by state representatives, civil society and political actors across South Asia continue to question why their government is allowing the waters of ‘their’ rivers to be used by a neighbouring state. Part 2 presents findings from our case study of Bangladesh, starting with a review of patterns of rainfall and river flow as factors that exert a crucial influence on water availability in Bangladesh. The focus of our study is on key transboundary rivers that are central to Bangladeshi debates on upstream dams and diversion schemes. While our research does not indicate that there have been substantial declines or shifts in rainfall across Bangladesh over the past decades, more concerning is the long-term decline in the flow of the Ganges–Padma, which many assume to be exacerbated by the operation of the Farakka Barrage. Although the decline in river flow volumes began well before construction of the barrage, we suggest that its operation may be canceling out natural long-term cyclical patterns to create new average flows that are lower than those of the mid-20th century. Perhaps more importantly, our analysis has found no clear relationship between water scarcity and conflict in the past two decades, although in the case of the Ganges–Padma river there are indications that more conflict events have occurred as flow volumes have decreased, supported by interview data on several instances where violent and non-violent conflicts have arisen over the issue of water availability. Given increasing uncertainties over water supply, domestic water-sharing policies should therefore be considered as supporting not only livelihoods but also security. While it is essential to understand macro changes in South Asia’s climate and water ecosystems, good water management also requires an understanding of local dynamics in areas dependent on river water, including grassroots perceptions of water-related challenges and popular views about their causes. The stakeholder analysis made it clear that communication between water management policymakers and affected populations along the rivers is minimal, and that a very significant knowledge gap exists between policymakers and affected populations. Those who are facing the consequences of water management policies and projects are largely ignorant about decisionmaking and are not invited into policymaking processes, nor are their views sought by policymakers. As a result, policymakers do not have sufficient information about local challenges, views and interests. However, as a result of developments in the media, local residents are now becoming more aware of water-related issues, while projects such as the Tipaimukh Dam have become a burning issue of civil society protests, especially in the Sylhet area downstream of the proposed dam. Our study revealed a further communication gap and gap in awareness between policymakers and knowledge producers, and a lack of expert involvement in policymaking. Finally, there are also barriers to civil society contributions to decisionmaking. The danger is that policymaking outcomes are more influenced by political rivalry than by comprehensive scientific assessments of water-related challenges. Although bilateral treaties still form the primary mode of cooperation on transboundary rivers in South Asia, multilateral frameworks and transboundary River Basin Organizations (RBOs) are attracting increasing attention in the region as potential avenues forward in dealing with water challenges, as described in Part 3 of this report. The term ‘transboundary river basin organization’ describes a wide range of organizational types performing various functions, generally including most (if not all) of the countries within a particular river basin. The legal frameworks and statutes of these institutions are often determined by the basin’s context and history and the mandate given to the body established by the member states. This project looked specifically at the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), Mekong River Commission (MRC) and South Asia Water Initiative (SAWI) in order to illustrate their relevance for the region of study and explore possibilities for extracting important lessons relevant across cases. Whereas NBI and MRC are among the organizations often used as examples of comparatively successful transboundary water cooperation, SAWI is a relatively new multilateral framework initiative, and, so far, is the only multilateral initiative on transboundary waters in South Asia. It is therefore important to investigate this initiative, to inform the further development of multilateral river-basin cooperation on river water management in South Asia in general and Bangladesh in particular.

TRANSBOUNDARY WATER GOVERNANCE IN INDO-BANGLADESH LOWER GANGES BASIN

Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN), 2013

The undivided Bengal mainly consisted of lower Ganges basin and the plain land of Brahmaputra Basin. The partition of Bengal in 1947 brought a number of problems affecting the overall production of food. The state of West Bengal was constituted with about two-fifth of the undivided Bengal. Thus much of fertile land was cut and transferred to Bangladesh (formerly, East Bengal). Sudden influx of a large numbers of refugees into the state of West Bengal commenced in 1947 and continued for years. Thus the truncated state of West Bengal had a tremendous pressure of population and food. As a result, only a small fraction of surface water resources is being utilized for irrigation and other purposes due to short stretches of the rivers originating from Himalayan range intercepted by the state of West Bengal. Fifty-four rivers traverse the border between India and Bangladesh. Sharing of these transboundary rivers has a major socio-political issue since the birth of India and Bangladesh. The aim of this paper is to framework transboundary water governance plan within the Indo-Bangladesh Ganges basin. In particular, the lower Ganges river basin directly impacts the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people and has a focal point of Indo-Bangladeshi relation. The water-sharing negotiations for the major transboundary river Ganges resumed in 1977 assuring Bangladesh of a fixed, minimum water supply during the dry season. The Ganges Water Treaty for thirty years was signed in December 1996. The 30-year Treaty establishes the guaranty for supply of 35,000 cusecs water for Kolkata Port Trust during the dry season (April-May), but it fails due to lean flow of Ganges at Farakka. Nota-bly, the Treaty prohibits India from making unilateral withdrawals from the bar-rage system at Farakka and allocates a larger share of the flow during the dry season to Bangladesh. Besides river water, the Ganges alluvium reserves replenishable ground wa-ter under water table condition and the underground water resources are devel-oped by extraction through tube wells, where surface water is inadequate to ful-fill irrigation demand. As both the surface water and ground water flow gradient downwards from West Bengal towards Bangladesh, technically sound transboundary water governance is very much essential for the development of water resources of both the country in sustainable manner.

TRANSBOUNDARY FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT: CASE OF KOSI RIVER

SPACE: The SPA Journal of Planning and Architecture, 2019

Floods are not revered by national or regional boundaries. Flooding from across the border requires participation of governments for flood risk management. In 2015, United Nation (UN) adopted seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Target 6.5.2 of SDG aims at international water management requiring co-operation amongst transboundary countries. The upstream and downstream relationships within a transboundary basin is a driving attribute for flood resilience feature in a basin. The flood risk is almost twice in the countries located at the receiving end as compared to the country of origin. The paper investigates the occurrence and impact of floods in the transboundary river basin by taking the case of Kosi river basin. The paper primarily uses secondary sources to develop an understanding of basin characteristics and bilateral relations of country units. Kosi river basin has three basin country units (BCU) i.e. China, Nepal and India. Out of these 3 BCU, India faces catastrophic effect of river due to its location at the downstream of the basin. For studying the causes and impact of floods occurred in Kosi river basin, only Nepal and India’s data has been collated and analysed.

Nepal–India water cooperation: consequences of mutuality or hegemony?

Water Policy

This article reviews the relationship between Nepal and India, particularly in water resources cooperation. The two South Asian neighbours have entered into a number of agreements/treaties in water resources, namely, Sarada Agreement (1920), Kosi Agreement (1954), Gandak Agreement (1959) and Mahakali Treaty (1996). Nepal is criticized within the country for being unable to secure its benefits, and that all the agreements are in India's favour. However, the Indian side claims that overpoliticization of water issues in Nepal is the reason for not achieving the benefits from these agreements. Since the Mahakali Treaty, there has been deadlock in Nepal–India water cooperation as the implementation of the treaty has not materialized even after more than two decades since its ratification. Therefore, all the forms of cooperation in the past between Nepal and India can be viewed as the consequence of hydro-hegemony rather than mutuality. The article concludes that both nations need to ...

Institutional forces behind water conflict in the Ganga plains

GeoJournal, 1999

... In the words of Vijaya Kumar, a resident of the Bagmati area and the joint convenor of BMA: “The area where the Bagmati embankment touches the boundary of Nepal is fraught with problems. ... Kameshwar Lal Indu of West Champaran says: ...