ABSTRACT
Broadly speaking, Himalayan Asia consists of 17 countries, parts or all of which are situated in the basins of rivers originating in the Himalayan mountain ranges. This chapter begins with the assertion that Indians might view their country as being in the midst of a whirlpool of river rivalries — meaning, for one thing, that these rivalries are interconnected: the river basins housing the rivalries are common to all neighboring nations, as are their political, economic and strategic roots, effects and implications. In other words, Himalayan Asia's fresh-water crisis is a shared crisis — as must be the solution. In the matter of bilateral and multilateral treaties governing the sharing of fresh-water, Himalayan Asia stands out for having so few of them. Pakistan's heavy dependence on trans-boundary water supplies to feed its vast agricultural irrigation system has inevitably riveted its attention on to the Indus system and, in particular, on India's de facto ownership of the Indus headwaters.
