Linking rivers in the Ganges-Brahmaputra River Basin: exploring the transboundary effects

The following paper explores the possible inter-linkage of the Ganges and Brahmaputra River Basin and analyzes its effect on future water allocation between the upstream country, India, and the downstream country, Bangladesh. We find that water transfer from the Brahmaputra River could be mutually beneficial for both countries. However, the only possible motivation for the richer upstream country, India, to agree to transfer water to the poorer downstream country, Bangladesh, is political altruism. Using a political economy model we find that, if there is a good political relationship between India and Bangladesh, then India could be altruistic toward Bangladesh and transfer more water downstream. Changes in political altruism factor, however, could entice India to exercise unilateral diversion, in which case simulations predict that Bangladesh would incur large environmental damages. Political uncertainty may also result in unilateral diversion of water by India, and could prevent agreement on water transfers from the Brahmaputra. We therefore explore the conditions under which Bangladesh could accept an Indian proposal to transfer water from Brahmaputra, despite political uncertainty.Length: pp.373-395River basin managementRiver basin developmentDevelopment projectsInternational cooperationWater transferWater allocationPlanningFlowSimulation modelsComputer softwareEnvironmental effectsRisks

Benefits of irrigation water transfers in the National River Linking Project: a case study of Godavari (Polavaram)-Krishna link in Andhra Pradesh

River basin managementDevelopment projectsWater scarcityWater transferGroundwater irrigationSurface irrigationLand useDamsRiceLivestock

Scope and Sustainability of Cooperation in Transboundary Water Sharing of the Volta River

The paper explores the scope and sustainability of a self-enforcing cooperative agreement in the framework of a game theoretic model, where the upstream and downstream country, Burkina Faso and Ghana respectively in the Volta River Basin, bargain over the level of water abstraction in the upstream. In the model we consider the case where the downstream country, Ghana, offers a discounted price for energy export to the upstream country, Burkina Faso, to restrict its water abstraction rate in the upstream. The paper examines the benefits and sustainability of such self-enforcing cooperative arrangements between Ghana and Burkina Faso given stochastic uncertainty in the river flow. The findings of the paper suggest that at the present condition, the marginal benefit of Burkina Faso from increasing the water abstraction is much higher than that of Ghana’s marginal loss. However, the paper finds that if both countries’ water abstraction rates are at a much higher level, then the marginal loss of Ghana increases phenomenally from similar increase in water abstraction rate by Burkina Faso. Under such circumstances, there is an opportunity for Ghana to provide side payments in terms of discounted export price of power in order to motivate Burkina Faso to restrict water abstraction

Cooperation in transboundary water sharing under climate change

As multiple countries share a river, the likelihood of a water resource conflict from climate change could be higher between countries. In this paper, we demonstrate how countries can cooperate in transboundary water sharing in a sustainable way, given the impacts of climate change. We illustrate the case of water sharing of the Volta River between the upstream and downstream country, Burkina Faso and Ghana respectively, where the latter country faces a tradeoff of water use between agriculture in the north and production of hydro energy in the south. In the framework of a stochastic Stackelberg differential game, we have shown how the issue of water sharing could be linked to hydropower export that can make water sharing between the countries sustaining in the event of climate change. Our results indicate that during cooperation, Ghana will have an opportunity to increase its water abstraction for agriculture, which has remained largely restricted. We also find that the equilibrium strategies in the long run steady state distribution are stable even with increasing variances of water flow

Cost and benefits of intermediate water storage structures: case study of diggies in Rajasthan

Water storageWater deliveryIrrigation schedulingWater controlIrrigation canalsWatercoursesFarmsCrop productionCost benefit analysis

The role of virtual water for sustainable economic restructuring: Evidence from Uzbekistan, Central Asia

Increases in water demand due to population growth, industrial development and urbanization necessitate economically efficient use of water resources worldwide. This is particularly true in the dryland zones of the world relying on irrigated agriculture for economic development such as in Uzbekistan, Central Asia. Due to ill-managed water resources and the dominance of high water intensive crops, water use efficiency in the region is very low. This challenges Uzbekistan to modernize its agricultural sectors and develop its industrial sectors guided by the principles of a green economy, which are the basis for sustainable growth. Therefore, this study aims to prioritize economic sectors according to their sustainable growth potential. To this end, we employ a national inputoutput model to estimate economic backward and forward linkage measures and virtual water contents across the sectors. Our results indicate that developing agro-processing industries and the livestock sector rather than relying on the production of raw agricultural commodities such as cotton, wheat, and rice provides more sustainable economic development in Uzbekistan. However, to exploit these comparative advantages, the necessary market infrastructure and institutions as well as an increased control over wastewaters would need to be implemented

The role of scarcity in global virtual water flows

Recent analyses of the evolution and structure of trade in virtual water revealed that the number of trade connections and volume of virtual water trade have more than doubled over the past two decades, and that developed countries increasingly draw on the rest of the world to alleviate the pressure on their domestic water resources. Our work builds on these studies, but fills three important gaps in the research on global virtual water trade. First, we note that in previous studies virtual water volumes are lumped together from countries experiencing vastly different degrees of water scarcity. We therefore incorporate water scarcity into assessments of virtual water flows. Second, we note that some previous studies assess virtual water networks only in terms of immediate water used for food production, but omit indirect virtual water used throughout the supply chains underlying all traded goods. In our analysis we therefore use input-output analysis to also include indirect virtual water. We note existing conflicting views about whether trade in virtual water can lead to overall savings in global water resources. We re-visit the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem in the context of direct as well as indirect virtual water in order to determine whether international trade can be seen as a feasible demand management instrument in alleviating water scarcity. We find that the structure of global virtual water networks changes significantly after adjusting for water scarcity. In addition, when indirect virtual water is appraised the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem can be validated

The role of virtual water for sustainable economic restructuring : evidence from Uzbekistan, Central Asia

Increases in water demand due to population growth, industrial development and urbanization necessitate economically efficient use of water resources worldwide. This is particularly true in the dryland zones of the world relying on irrigated agriculture for economic development such as in Uzbekistan, Central Asia. Due to ill-managed water resources and the dominance of high water intensive crops, water use efficiency in the region is very low. This challenges Uzbekistan to modernize its agricultural sectors and develop its industrial sectors guided by the principles of a "green economy", which are the basis for sustainable growth. Therefore, this study aims to prioritize economic sectors according to their sustainable growth potential. To this end, we employ a national input-output model to estimate economic backward and forward linkage measures and virtual water contents across the sectors. Our results indicate that developing agro-processing industries and the livestock sector rather than relying on the production of raw agricultural commodities such as cotton, wheat, and rice provides more sustainable economic development in Uzbekistan. However, to exploit these comparative advantages, the necessary market infrastructure and institutions as well as an increased control over wastewaters would need to be implemented

The role of scarcity in global virtual water flows

Recent analyses of the evolution and structure of trade in virtual water revealed that the number of trade connections and volume of virtual water trade have more than doubled over the past two decades, and that developed countries increasingly draw on the rest of the world to alleviate the pressure on their domestic water resources. Our work builds on these studies, but fills three important gaps in the research on global virtual water trade. First, we note that in previous studies virtual water volumes are lumped together from countries experiencing vastly different degrees of water scarcity. We therefore incorporate water scarcity into assessments of virtual water flows. Second, we note that some previous studies assess virtual water networks only in terms of immediate water used for food production, but omit indirect virtual water used throughout the supply chains underlying all traded goods. In our analysis we therefore use input-output analysis to also include indirect virtual water. We note existing conflicting views about whether trade in virtual water can lead to overall savings in global water resources. We re-visit the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem in the context of direct as well as indirect virtual water in order to determine whether international trade can be seen as a feasible demand management instrument in alleviating water scarcity. We find that the structure of global virtual water networks changes significantly after adjusting for water scarcity. In addition, when indirect virtual water is appraised the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem can be validated