This chapter focuses on the water crisis in Himalayan Asia and analyses two of the important legal frameworks governing transboundary watercourses. Due to the aforementioned factors, most countries in the region have seen their renewable freshwater resources and water availability drop continuously over the last decades. The recently published Asian Water Development Outlook provides a first comprehensive analysis of water security on a country-by-country basis in Asia. The rapid economic expansion of China and India also results in an increased use of water and hydropower. Water plays a key role in this struggle, as its diminishing supplies are putting an enormous amount of pressure on the Chinese people and on the country's ability to continue its global economic rise. Based on the standard definitions, North China is already a water-scarce region; while China as a whole will soon be a water-stressed country. China has long recognised its particular water management challenge.