India can use the vibrant civil society network spanning Southeast Asia to highlight the shared concerns of rural riparian communities and engage China in a sub-regional dialogue to resolve trans-boundary water issues, Nimmi Kurian, Associate Professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, says.
Talking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a national seminar organised by the C. Achutha Menon Study Centre and Library here, she said the subtle shifts in China’s public diplomacy on sharing the Mekong waters with five Southeast Asian countries revealed a greater degree of responsiveness to stakeholder concerns.
These recent shifts hold out the promise of nudging China towards water resource management norms that were beneficial for downstream communities, she said, underlining the need for a flexible approach beyond formal instruments.
Climate change
“Climate change is one issue that can be used to start a sub-regional dialogue on trans-boundary water governance,” she said.
“China’s growing demand for water and energy has resulted in a national campaign to develop and augment the country’s huge hydropower capacity. A series of dams have been planned on major international rivers such as the Salween, the Mekong and the Yarlung-Tsangpo. Many of these rivers flow into some of the most populous regions in South and Southeast Asia. The manner in which these waters are used upstream will impinge on the quality and quantity of the flows received below,” she said.
“Geographically, China has the advantage of being an upper riparian nation and hence never felt the need to address the concerns and challenges faced by downstream regions. Hence the need for public diplomacy involving the media, academia and civil society groups.”
Ms. Kurian, who is part of the BCIM Forum, a sub-regional Track-II initiative of research institutes from Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar to study the processes of marginalisation on the peripheries and suggest actionable and alternate imaginaries, said concerns over water-resource scarcity could raise the potential for conflict and pose threats to peace and stability in the region.
“A sub-regional dialogue involving India, China and other countries in South and Southeast Asia should address the benefits accruing from sharing international river basins. Such a platform would create entry points for diverse stakeholders to come together,” she said.