Water Security In Asia

This book assesses the current water-security situation in Asia. The thematic areas of the book discuss the United Nation’s sustainable development goals with a particular focus on Goal 6 (“Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation”) and Goal 13 (“Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”). Asia has been facing a number of water-related challenges for decades due to multiple factors such as increasing population, socio-economic development, urbanization and migration, and climate change now poses an additional threat. While significant efforts have been made by governments in Asia, much more work is needed to make Asian societies water-secure. Given its multi-disciplinary approach, the book is a valuable resource for researchers involved in the further development of water-security concepts, approaches, and methodologies. In addition, it helps policymakers, planners, and practitioners to formulate sustainable water- security enhancement strategies grounded in sound scientific evidence to protect human well-being.

The Asian Water Development Outlook charts progress in water security in Asia and the Pacific over the past 5 years. This 2016 edition of the report uses the latest available data to assess water security in five key dimensions: household access to piped potable water and improved sanitation, economic water security, providing better urban water services to build more livable cities, restoring healthy rivers and ecosystems, and resilience to water disasters. The region shows a positive trend in strengthening water security since the 2013 edition of the report, when 38 out of 49 countries were assessed as water-insecure. In 2016, that number dropped to 29 out of 48 countries. This study was supported by ADB’s Water Financing Partnership Facility.

This open access book explores the implications of urbanization in South Asia for water (in-) security in the peri-urban spaces of Dhaka and Khulna in Bangladesh, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune in India, and Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The book looks into specifically peri-urban water security issues in a context of rapid urbanization and social-environmental changes, including the changing climate and its emerging impacts. It demonstrates how urbanization processes change water flows between rural and urban areas, the implications of this processes for the water security of peri-urban populations, and how new institutions and technologies develop to mediate the relationships between peri-urban communities and water. The book seeks to further the debate on peri-urban water security, including what constitutes the peri-urban, socially differentiated access to water in peri-urban spaces, interventions for improving water access, and emerging forms of cooperation and conflict related to water access in a context of urbanization and climate change. As such, this book is an interesting read for academics with various disciplinary backgrounds, professionals working in the worlds of national and international policy, NGOs, activist groups, research and development institutes, and individual readers interested in water security and urbanization.

The Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO) 2020 assesses national water security across Asia and the Pacific, focusing on five key dimensions: rural, economic, urban, environmental, and water-related disaster. Despite considerable achievements in Asia and the Pacific since the AWDO 2013 edition, 1.5 billion people in rural areas and 0.6 billion in urban areas still lack adequate water supply and sanitation. Sound water management and access to reliable service delivery remain vital to inclusive economic growth and social well-being, especially after the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This edition includes two new sections highlighting the importance of finance and governance to water security as well as case studies demonstrating how the AWDO has influenced policy development in four countries.

The world is on the brink of the greatest crisis it has ever faced: a spiraling lack of fresh water. Groundwater is drying up, even as water demands for food production, for energy, and for manufacturing are surging. Water is already emerging as a headline geopolitical issue—and worsening water security will soon have dire consequences in many parts of the global economic system. Directed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the 2008 Davos Annual Meeting, the World Economic Forum assembled the world’s foremost group of public, private, non-governmental-organization and academic experts to examine the water crisis issue from all perspectives. The result of their work is this forecast—a stark, non-technical overview of where we will be by 2025 if we take a business-as-usual approach to (mis)managing our water resources. The findings are shocking. Perhaps equally stunning are the potential solutions and the recommendations that the group presents. All are included in this landmark publication. Water Security contains compelling commentary from leading decision-makers, past and present. The commentary is supported by analysis from leading academics of how the world economy will be affected if world leaders cannot agree on solutions. The book suggests how business and politics need to manage the energy-food-water-climate axis as leaders negotiate the details of the climate regime that replace Kyoto Protocols.

This is a pioneering study about the relationship between fresh water, peace, and security in Asia from the Middle East to Siberia but with a special focus on South and Southeast Asia. Asia is home to many of the world's great rivers and lakes, but its huge population and booming economies make it the most water-scarce continent on a per capita basis. Over extensive irrigation, pollution, and global warming add to the demographic and economic pressures on Asia's fresh water supplies. The location of the sources for much of South and Southeast Asia's fresh water is in the Chinese controlled Tibetan Plateau, and China's increasing exploitation of these water sources have created growing geopolitical tensions that could boil over into conflict. India is reliant on fresh water from Tibet, which gives the Chinese uncomfortable leverage over India and further exacerbates their unsettled border disputes. Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other countries of the region also find themselves in similarly vulnerable positions where water is scarce and the sources are increasingly being exploited and polluted upstream by the continent's most powerful country. Brahma Chellaney proposes strategies to avoid conflict and more equitably share and preserve Asia's water resources.

This book highlights the relationship between the water sector and various other sectors in order to establish an improved understanding of the importance of water resources as an essential cross-cutting vector of socio-economic development. The book is both policy and practice oriented and is not constrained by existing definitions on water security. It includes actual experiences of policy, management, development and governance decisions taken within the water sector, and examples on how these have affected the energy and agricultural sectors as well as impacted the environment, and vice versa, as appropriate. It also discusses trade-offs, short and long-term implications, lessons learnt, and the way forward. The book includes case studies on cities, countries and regions such as Australia, China, Singapore, Central Asia, Morocco, Southern Africa, France, Latin America, Brazil and California.