Conceptualizing environmental governance on the GBM basin

Introduction to the problem complexity The natural water mostly used in the South Asian region comes from the Ganges– Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM)1 river basin. The four South Asian countries Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Bhutan are sharing the largest river basin of the world together. China is also part of this GBM delta, nevertheless, it only shares the Brahmaputra along with Bhutan, India and Bangladesh (see Table 1 and Fig. 1). These three major rivers play a significant role in shaping the social and cultural lives of the people of this region. Many rivers in this region are originated in one country and end in another because of the artificial demarcation that took place during the period of decolonization in the mid-twentieth century. Water is one of the most important natural resources for the people living of the basin countries. About 80 per cent of the water in the Ganges flows in the monsoon months