Water

Cambodia’s Stung Chinit Watershed is one of the world’s most productive ecosystems, but it is also among Cambodia’s poorest regions, where inequalities of gender and poverty can make water for drinking and agriculture scarce or unavailable.

Following from The Asia Foundation’s political economy analysis on the Kosi Basin, we conducted dialogues in communities along the river, both in India and in Nepal to gain an understanding of local knowledge and perceptions of current basin management, against the backdrop of annual flooding. This video showcases the lives of women in the Kosi bas… Read more

The biennial conference of the Women’s Funding Network, which took place in San Francisco September 11–13, provided an opportunity for The Asia Foundation to convene the panel “Gender and Climate Justice: Lessons from Asia and the Pacific.” The changing climate is arguably the biggest issue of our time, and the follow-on effects of environmental di… Read more

Recently, youth leaders from around Pakistan gathered to examine some of the most critical issues facing Pakistan: the water crisis and governance challenges in the water sector, and energy, food, and sustainable and efficient ways forward. The Asia Foundation, in partnership with the School of Leadership, organized a panel discussion on “Water-Ene… Read more

Pakistan receives average rainfall of not more than 250mm per year, making it one of the most arid and most water-stressed countries on the planet. A 2016 WaterAid report estimates Pakistan’s annual water availability at 1,017 cubic meters per person, compared to 5,000 cubic meters per person in 1950. If current trends continue, the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources warns, Pakistan will find itself at absolute water scarcity by 2025.

Recently, the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) delivered a grave warning: if the government does not take action, the country will run out of water by 2025. Severe water scarcity is already having a negative impact on the country’s public health and the economy. Over 80 percent of water supplied is considered unsafe, and wate… Read more

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s four-day state visit to India last month, her first in seven years, was productive by any measure. Twenty-two agreements, spanning defense cooperation, nuclear energy, and outer space were inked. The relationship has been one of the bright spots for cooperation in South Asia, and has steadily gained moment… Read more

Mongolia is facing challenging times economically, especially compared to four or five years ago when the country was growing at a breakneck speed of 17 percent, that today is down to just 1.3 percent. The drop is a result of slumping demand for minerals, and for mineral-rich Mongolia this has spelled bad news for business. Small businesses, which… Read more

Last week, widespread mob violence broke out in India’s high-tech capital, Bangalore, over a Supreme Court order that requires the state of Karnataka to release 15,000 cubic feet of water per second per day from the Cauvery river to the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. The violence, which left two dead and hundreds arrested, stems from a decades-lo… Read more

South Asia’s major rivers are critical to economic growth and food and energy security, but these rivers have sustained considerable stress from population growth and industrial development. The Asia Foundation has launched a new Civil Society Fund that supports community and civil society engagement on transboundary water issues in the South Asia… Read more

Traveling in Mongolia during the winter can prove challenging, and our journey last month was no exception. Our team was traveling to the northernmost Khuvsgul province, 700 kilometers from the capital of Ulaanbaatar, to visit communities…

South Asia has witnessed rapid social and economic transformation over the last two decades. Undeterred by a global slowdown, the region’s economic growth rate is expected to remain at a respectable 6 and 6.4 percent for 2015 and 2016….

The seventh World Water Forum, the world’s largest water event, kicks off April 12 in Daegu, Korea. The Asia Foundation’s Mandakini Surie joins experts and high-level officials to discuss pressing global water challenges. The Foundation will present a side event on the Mekong-Ganga Dialogue, organized by New Delhi’s Observer Research Foundation and… Read more

The latest United Nations World Water Development Report, released just ahead of World Water Day on March 22, warns that, by 2030, only 60 percent of the world’s demand for water will be met by existing resources at the current rate of use.

March 22 is World Water Day, and this year’s theme is focused on water and sustainable development. The relationship between water and development is particularly critical in the Asia-Pacific region, one of the most water-stressed regions in the world, and home to 61 percent of the world’s people, with a population expected to reach five billion by 2050.

Every year as the monsoon rains in Cambodia ease and the Mekong River’s flow subsides, the largest lake in Cambodia, the Tonle Sap, begins its annual drain of the Central Cambodian flood plain. The Tonle Sap is a unique lake/river system in the world…

Severe floods in the Kashmir region of Northern India and Pakistan over the past few weeks have taken 450 lives so far, and uprooted thousands of residents on both sides of the highly politicized border. Heavy monsoon rains caused the Chenab and Jhelum rivers (tributaries of the Indus River system) to overflow their banks…

A new report from the Asian Development Bank sent a warning signal to Mongolia that, despite its wealth of natural resources and pristine image, the country faces a severe water scarcity and quality crisis – one that could leave its growing capital…

Images of the major rivers of Asia – including the mighty Mekong that snakes through Southeast Asia and the Ganges and other revered rivers that bisect the subcontinent – might seem at odds with the sobering fact that Asia is the world’s driest…

In 2008, Nepal and India experienced one of the worst river disasters in their modern history, when the Kosi River breached an embankment flooding vast areas of terai Nepal and northeastern parts of Bihar, India. The floods caused tremendous loss of human life and property, affecting an estimated 50,000 Nepalis and 3.5 million Indians. A tributary of the Ganges and a transboundary river that flows through Tibet, Nepal, and India, the Kosi River is prone to seasonal variations in river flow and sediment discharge, resulting in frequent downstream floods.

By 2050, estimates predict that close to 70 percent of the world will live in cities. Asia is home to 17 of the 25 most densely populated cities in the world, and the mass migration from the countryside to Asia’s cities is “unprecedented in human history” and has significant environmental consequences, according to the Asian Development Bank.

Clean rivers in Laos are critically important to the well-being of local communities and to the country’s national development. Nearly 80 percent of the population of this landlocked Southeast Asian nation depends on river-fed subsistence agriculture for its survival.

The Asia Foundation just released a series of six policy briefs on transboundary water governance issues in the Ganges river basin area, in partnership with the Observer Research Foundation, a public policy think-tank that aims to influence formulation of policies in India. Written by experts from Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, the briefs examine ri… Read more

More than 75 percent of Asia-Pacific countries lack water security, and compared to other regions, South Asia is a hot spot where inequity of access to water is the highest. The Asia Foundation recently concluded a study on the political economy of the Teesta River Basin, in partnership with civil society organizations in India and Bangladesh. Base… Read more

More than 75 percent of Asia-Pacific countries lack water security, according to a new report released last week by the Asian Development Bank. Compared to other regions, South Asia is a hot spot where inequity of access to water is the highest. The region supports more than 21 percent of the world’s population, but has access to just over 8 percent of global water resources. As rapid population growth and urbanization increase demand, water is increasingly a scarce and precious resource in South Asia. Even as the complex environmental consequences of climate change, deteriorating river ecology, and growing urbanization continue to unfold new challenges for the region, South Asia’s water woes could be significantly mitigated through improved water governance…

My colleague Lisa Hook and I are currently in the Pacific Island countries of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), two small island states that face some of the highest risks of natural disasters and climate change.

As we reflect on the state of global water on World Water Day 2012, measurable progress has been made over the last two decades, but much more remains to be done. Looking ahead, who are the catalytic change agents? The answer: women. On March 6, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) published a report stating that, as of 2010, 89 percent of the world’s population had access to safe drinking water. This exceeds the international target set by the seventh Millennium Development Goal on environmental sustainability (MDG7) by one percent.

Climate change combined with rapid population growth and urbanization is placing intense pressure on South Asia’s most precious resource: water. Per capita water availability in the region has decreased by 70 percent since 1950, according to the Asian Development Bank.

A bowl of rice, vegetables, and tofu is a meal that has been eaten for hundreds of years throughout Asia. It is a meal that requires approximately 571.5 liters of water to produce. And, it is a meal that is, slowly but surely, being replaced. Throughout the region, people are increasingly…

Tomorrow is World Water Day. Tragically, by the end of the day, 4,300 children somewhere in the world will have died because of contaminated water and poor sanitation. That’s one child every every 20 seconds. This is an appalling statistic, but still represents a marked improvement from 12 years ago…

In the early weeks of October, people across Thailand experienced great heartache and even disbelief as they watched news coverage of rising floodwaters submerging several sizable industrial factories north of Bangkok one by one. During the first weeks of the flooding, we listened patiently…

Asia has fewer fresh water resources than any other continent in the world. The global average of fresh water per capita annually is 6,280 cubic meters. The only countries rich in water resources in all of Asia are Malaysia, Laos, Bhutan, Nepal, and Kyrgyzstan, leaving the rest of Asia water-stressed.

Sri Lanka is no stranger to water-related disaster; the 2004 tsunami was only one such threat to livelihoods in the vulnerable island nation. In January and February 2011, Sri Lanka’s Northern, Eastern, and Central provinces were deluged by severe floods. Though flooding during the country’s bi-annual monsoon is a recurrent problem, the rains in the hardest-hit district of Batticaloa…

In many ways, Laos, one of Southeast Asia’s most remote countries, is at the epicenter of regional debate over water and environmental sustainability. More than 85 percent of land in Laos lies within the Mekong River Basin, and communities rely on their rivers to survive.