Shared Waters, Shared Fate

Ancient Indian wisdom speaks about treaties, compacts and formal agreements between polities and regions covering governance, trade, diplomacy and even hydrology. The Arthashastra has an entire theory of inter-state diplomacy and agreements. Samudragupta’s Prayag Prashasti talks about diplomatic agreements that preserve local kingship and shows how inter-polity relations were actively managed through negotiated outcomes and not through annihilation. There are instances in the past where water was treated as a shared resource, governed by negotiated rights and overseen by local assemblies like the ur and sabha. Junagadh (Girnar) rock inscription of Rudradaman I (c. 150 CE) is hard evidence that large hydraulic systems were repaired across time presenting water infrastructure as a core responsibility. The Kollum/Quilon Tarisapalli (Syrian Christian) copper plates of 849/850 CE) records a commercial-urban arrangement involving ruler, a merchant leader and guilds which regulated cross-regional trade by granting rights, immunities, institutional beneficiaries and protection obligations. The Dharmashastra and Itihasa tradition contains Rajadharma rules about honouring agreements and oaths are taken before fire, water and gods to grant it legal sanctity.

India and South Asia are entering a decisive moment in its hydrological history, where the convergence of the triple planetary crisis, viz. climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution has begun to systematically undermine regional water security. The unfolding water emergencies across the subcontinent illustrate the scale of the challenge: catastrophic floods in India, Pakistan and other countries displacing millions, simultaneously droughts afflicting Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and accelerating groundwater depletion threatening agricultural and urban systems alike. India is projected to cross into water-scarce status with per capita freshwater availability falling below 1,000 cubic metres, Pakistan’s Indus flows have declined by nearly 30 per cent, and Bangladesh faces ecological destabilisation from chronic aquifer over-extraction. These crises are not isolated national phenomena but interconnected manifestations of a shared and rapidly destabilising hydrological system.

At the core of this regional emergency lies the degradation of the Hindu Kush Himalayan cryosphere the “water tower of Asia” upon which nearly two billion people depend for drinking water, food production, and energy generation. Himalayan glaciers are melting at rates far exceeding historical norms, driven by regional warming that outpaces the global average and exacerbated by black carbon deposition from biomass burning and diesel emissions. This accelerated melt produces a paradoxical hydrological regime: short-term surges in flood risk followed by long-term depletion of dry-season flows, eroding the reliability of water supplies across entire river basins. The collapse of spring-fed systems in mountain regions, where over 40 per cent of traditional springs have dried in parts of the Kumaon Himalaya, demonstrates how cryospheric change cascades into livelihood insecurity, agricultural decline, and rural distress far downstream.

These biophysical disruptions intersect with deep governance deficits. South Asia’s trans-boundary rivers remain governed largely through bilateral, allocation-focused treaties that are ill-equipped to manage climate variability, ecosystem degradation, and pollution. As glacier retreat, erratic monsoons, sea-level rise, and salinity converge; the absence of basin-wide, adaptive governance frameworks intensifies political tensions and amplifies vulnerability among the poorest riparian communities. Addressing this multidimensional crisis, therefore, requires a fundamental shift away from fragmented, sectoral water management toward cross-cutting, systems-oriented approaches that treat water as a connector linking ecosystems, economies, and societies.

Basin-wide management offers the institutional mechanism through which such integration can be realised in transboundary contexts. Unlike bilateral treaties centred on volumetric allocations, basin-wide approaches recognise hydrological interdependence and prioritise shared risk management, ecosystem health, and benefit-sharing. Initiatives such as the Ganga–Brahmaputra–Meghna basin cooperation under the T2:3R programme demonstrate how multi-country partnerships can strengthen climate resilience, improve riverine ecosystems, and institutionalise inclusive governance that elevates women, indigenous peoples, and youth as central actors. Similarly, regional platforms like the South Asia Water Initiative underscore the value of shared data, joint modelling, and evidence-based decision-making in depoliticising water cooperation.

Ecosystem-based strategies must form the backbone of these basin frameworks. Wetlands, often overlooked in infrastructure-centric planning, function as natural regulators that store floodwaters, recharge aquifers, filter pollutants, and sustain fisheries and agriculture. Integrating wetland-wide conservation into basin governance, as exemplified by India’s decentralised National Wetland Conservation Programme, offers scalable pathways to restore ecological buffers such as the Sundarbans, which provide transboundary flood protection, carbon sequestration, and food security.

Decoupling strategies supported by water footprint analysis and efficiency-driven agricultural transitions enable economic growth without proportional increases in water consumption, a necessity in a region where agriculture accounts for nearly 80% of water use under intensifying scarcity. Restoration and re-wilding initiatives expand these benefits by regenerating degraded watersheds and restoring natural hydrological processes. By enhancing groundwater recharge, moderating floods, and improving soil fertility, ecosystem restoration simultaneously strengthens climate resilience and livelihood security. Source-region cooperation further extends this logic upstream. Recent Nepal–China collaboration on glacial lake outburst flood monitoring highlights how shared early warning systems can transform glacial hazards into collective risk-management opportunities, though tensions between conservation and extraction underscore the need for principled, multilateral oversight.

The transversality framework provides a critical conceptual anchor for this shift. By positioning water at the nexus of energy, food, health, livelihoods, and environmental integrity, transversality breaks down artificial policy silos and aligns water governance with climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable development objectives. Rather than viewing water as a discrete sector, this approach recognises it as a development and economic indicator whose governance must integrate vertical linkages across scales and horizontal linkages across sectors. Operationalising transversality demands inclusive, multi-stakeholder platforms that bring governments, communities, civil society, the private sector, and international institutions into coordinated action.

Ultimately, our neighbours need to cooperate with India on institutionalising basin-wide cooperation that replaces zero-sum competition with shared stewardship. Innovative models such as water hubs provide tangible platforms for integrating these approaches. By combining renewable energy, sustainable food systems, wastewater reuse, and ecosystem regeneration within living laboratories, water hubs operationalise the water–energy–food–ecosystem nexus at basin and city scales, fostering entrepreneurship and resilience simultaneously. Permanent transboundary commissions, complemented by community-centred governance and gender-inclusive participation, can transform shared rivers from sources of conflict into foundations for regional stability, ecological regeneration, and sustainable development.

This exactly is what ancient Indian political thought mentions-- treating agreements not as signs of weakness, but as instruments of stability and continuity. Texts like the Arthasastra and inscriptions recording land grants, trade privileges, or shared water management show a preference for negotiated order over perpetual conflict. In modern times, this wisdom is relevant in reminding us that agreements work best when they focus on mutual benefit, predictability, and shared resources — whether trade corridors, rivers, or climate systems. Ancient practices encourage problem-solving through dialogue, respect for obligations, and continuity across regimes — principles that remain essential for sustainable international cooperation today.

Views expressed are personal. The writer is President, India Water Foundation and Visiting Fellow, Bharat ki Soch