South Asia Youth Camp on Climate Agriculture & Water 3.26

South Asia is one of the highly populated regions of the world with 22% of total world population. Around 80% of the poor of this region live in rural areas and are highly dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Another estimation shows that 40% of South Asian rural communities directly depend on common water bodies for their life and livelihoods whether the other study shows that 33% of common water bodies in South Asia have already been grabbed by the influential persons, corporate aquaculture or industries. So, agricultural and water management is the key to eradicating poverty and creating conditions for sustainable and equitable growth. Study reports suggest that if urgent actions are not undertaken to averse the trend of climate change, above 17%of total population in South Asia may face food insecurity by 2050 and 35%by 2100 due to shortage of staple food. Due to industrial pollution and land and water grabbing, smallholders including farmers and fisher folks are deprived from their traditional rights on water which is essential for food production, household use and livestock. Cross-boundary river basin management is another major problem in South Asia. Most of the main river-systems of the region are trans-boundary and upstream river management affects the downstream countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. Due to injustice in water flow from upstream in GBM and Sindh Basin, riparian communities of downstream, especially coastal zone, face problems of increasing salinity, flood, water logging and high sedimentation.

Water is also a major area which will be potentially affected by climate change. Due to sea level rise water is the first sector which likely to be contaminated by extreme salinity. On the other hand, ice melting in the Himalayas may increase frequency and intensity of floods. Furthermore, water scarcity will touch tough levels due to increased cyclones, drought, erratic rainfall and storm surges. Considering the water grabbing, trans-boundary water management and impact of climate change, a regional framework and policy direction is essential in South Asia.

In response of the problems, the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), albeit a least-functioning regional entity, has adopted Agreement on SAARC Food Bank, SAARC Seed Bank and Climate Change, however all of the multilateral policies are yet to be implemented properly. There are some bilateral agreements on trans-boundary water body management but different stakeholders, including the riparian communities, criticize inadequate implementations of those agreements. It is to mention that, a large portion of the common (i.e. that are common for communities, not for countries) water bodies in South Asian countries are grabbed by the commercial farms, local influential persons and industrial sector. It highly impacts food production and creates shortage of production.