Transboundary Water Research Group – TWRG

Rivers do not follow political borders while flowing through their natural courses. Several transboundary river basins (e.g., River Nile, Sanaga, Helmand River and Indus, etc.) in the world are being shared by different countries. In these shared basins, positive action on the river upstream can have a negative reaction on lower riparian. For instance, a unilateral move by one country to adapt to climate change by building a dam could drastically reduce a river’s flow downstream in another country. In this lieu, several water disputes are reported in the countries around these transboundary river basins and various water treaties and agreements (e.g., Kosi treaty, Mahakali treaty, and Indus water treaty) have been signed to resolve these conflicts and issues. Moreover, due to the increase in world’s population and climate change, water will be further stressed, and conflicts may further rise among the countries sharing the water.

Therefore, Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Engineering has taken this as a burning issue to establish Transboundary Water Research Group (TWRG) which aims to study the transboundary water conflicts. The major objectives for the establishment of Transboundary Research Group includes but are not limited to are:

• To identify, collect, list/catalogue transboundary water related reports, research papers, books and proceedings.
• To monitor the future plans of neighboring countries regarding the construction of dams on shared river basins
• To prepare the guidelines in assisting the government in policy making and suggesting suitable measures for the improvement and sustainability of the IWT based on international water laws and treaties.
• To identify the way forward in implementing the regulations of environmental flows from experience and case studies of transboundary river basins round the world.

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