Water infrastructure and connectivity: Growth and SDGs in Asia (Sonali Mittra, Rohan D'Souza, ORF)

This paper examines current water management ideologies and practices and the impact they create on strategies for pan-Asian connectivity. It suggests that 'business-as-usual' management principles and the harnessing of transboundary rivers tend to undermine efforts at achieving economic and ecological sustainability goals, as well as meeting long-term development challenges. The Mekong and Ganga basin regions, in particular, suffer from inadequate attention to their socio-ecological complexity; institutional arrangements are absent to take on the larger task of managing the region's water resources through meaningful infrastructural development. The paper recommends that infrastructural plans for pan-Asian connectivity be linked to efforts that are, simultaneously, aimed at realising Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Local communities and their livelihood strategies, moreover, should be drawn into efforts at knowledge creation for addressing climate-change adaptation challenges.

http://www.orfonline.org/research/water-infrastructure-and-connectivity-growth-and-sdgs-in-asia/