World should aim to make water a driver of cooperation: India

Noting that possibility of water-related conflicts cannot be ruled out globally, India has said the international community should aim to make water a "driver of cooperation" rather than considering an approach that tends to "securitise" water issues.

"In today's world and with our current understanding of the inter connectivity and mutuality of our environmental challenges we should aim to make water a driver of cooperation as the key term of international discourse rather than considering an approach that tends to securitise water issues," India's permanent representative at the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, told the UNSC yesterday during an open debate on water, peace and security.

"Going down the former path will engender genuine international collaboration. Going down the latter path on an issue as complex and cardinal to life as water will only be doing injustice to humanity as a whole," the Indian diplomat said.

Referring to the 200 treaties signed on 60 international watercourses in the last seven decades, Akbaruddin said experience shows that while international cooperation is essential in cases of the trans-boundary nature of water bodies, each specific instance has their own unique characteristics.

Countries concerned have found ways to cooperate in specific contexts in their collective interest, he noted.

India, he noted, is both an upper riparian and lower riparian state for a number of different rivers, and is familiar with the issues involved in the cooperative management of trans-boundary river waters.

"The partition of India in 1947 also partitioned rivers to the west and east. We have engaged with our neighbours in managing these shared waters. The landmark 1960 Indus Water Treaty was finalised, several years before the 1966 Helsinki Principles on trans-boundary water sharing," he said.

"There are also a series of other ongoing collaborative efforts with our neighbours on sharing of waters," he said.

Noting that water impinges on every aspect of human survival including on human security, Akbaruddin said while the possibility of water-related conflicts cannot be ruled out, it is encouraging to note that the overall experience of the international community has been positive in evolving specific innovative cooperative approaches to trans-boundary issues.