ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the legacies and challenges for water governance in the Ganges–Brahmaputra problemshed. These include colonial approaches to the control of rivers and the current narratives of water ‘scarcity’, which are often addressed with supply-side solutions. This chapter also discusses how global challenges – rapid population growth and urbanisation, climate change, food security – play out in regard to transboundary waters. These are all pressing issues, yet riparian states lack the political will to address them. This presents an opportunity for international actors to step in to improve transboundary water governance here.
