A Study on Threats to Water Security in Important River Basins

A new study published in Nature Water raises issue of water supply safety on four important river basins: the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra in Asia, plus Congo. Environmental management and governance are the primary drivers of the threats to water supplies in these areas, says a study.

Study of water resource management

Key Findings

• In Governance, India features in middle of the pack (on accountability; political stability and is half-way down order on all dimensions: government work quality;regulation -quality,rule of law)
• The country continues to rank low on environmental performance and remains extremely vulnerable to natural hazards

Upwind Approach

• Developed concept of 'precipitationshed' to study how water sustainability in one region depended on land use || * Early proponent…
• That means, a total of 32,900 cubic kilometers of water are required annually and that much is at high risk by land channeling due to moisture being evaporated from the ground.

The impact of evaporation on water availability

• Up to 40% of precipitation on the continents is contributed by moisture that evaporates back into the air from terrestrial sources.
• Deforestation and other land use changes can also alter patterns of rainfall in neighboring areas, manking water more scarce there.

Water risk by region

• Inadequate governance in many African and Middle Eastern nations.
• Asian countries led by India with bad environmental performance.
• Weak governance and absence of strong environmental protections places the Congo River Basin at risk.

Recommendations

• Water is not about the management of individual countries.
• Nations should cooperate to secure the supply of sustainable water.