Water security in South Asia; Geopolitical analysis

Abstract

South Asia is faced with water insecurity, within the region. That may be a possible water conflict in the future context. Disputes and difficulties arising from unequal flow distribution of transboundary rivers, engineering interventions such as dams, barrages and for the agreements signed bilaterally and storages, with complete disregard for the agreements, signed bilaterally between various states can be affected to emerging challenges in the water sector. As a South Asian country, India is a source of conflict in the watersharing arrangements with its co- basin countries. These water conflicts are not a recent trend and have been going back to a long history. Low riparian states of South Asia have been rising concerns over India’s tendency to use water of common rivers unilaterally without taking into account its economic, social, human and ecological cost. This study basically focuses on the conflict over water-related problems and their effects on interstate relations in the South Asian region. And the study highlights the challenges of water development such as mismanagement of shared water resources. The abovementioned objectives will be achieved in the light of information taken by secondary data sources collected from academic journals, reports, publications, and articles. Besides, these relevant literature has been obtained through various websites to collect secondary data. The analysis of this study is based on qualitative analysis. In this research qualitatively analyzes the Geopolitics Water in South Asia. The descriptive analysis was used. Finally, this study suggests ways to overcome water-sharing disputes in South Asia and promote peaceful coexistence.