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TRANSBOUNDARY WATER MANAGEMENTRegional water cooperation in theHindu Kush Himalayan regionArun B. Shrestha, Shahriar M. Wahid, Ramesh A. Vaidya, Mandira S. Shrestha and David J. Molden,International Centre for Integrated Mountain DevelopmentThe Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is a vast complexof high mountains, intermontane valleys and plateaus;it contains some of the world’s tallest peaks with over60,000 km 2 of glaciers and about 760,000 km 2 of snow cover.This snow and ice represents a massive store of freshwaterwhich supports food production, domestic water supply andsanitation, health, energy, tourism, industry, and the functioningof ecosystems. The region’s 10 major river basins – theAmu Darya, Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, Irrawaddy, Mekong,Salween, Tarim, Yangtze and Yellow – connect upstream anddownstream areas in terms of culture, communication, trade,commerce and resource management and, directly or indirectly,provide goods and services to 1.3 billion people including the210 million that live in the HKH region.While the river basins have been sources of great civilizations androutes of sociocultural movement, water-related transboundary cooperationin the modern era has been inadequate compared with manylarge river basins around the world such as the Danube, Mekong,Murray Darling, Nile and Rhine. Fortunately the governmentsof the HKH region increasingly recognize thatsustainable development of the economic potential ofthe river systems – for domestic use, fisheries, hydropower,navigation and irrigation – can reduce poverty,improve livelihoods, conserve ecosystems and contributeto drought and flood management in the region.Responding to the challenges of contemporary watermanagement in the region will depend on regional watercooperation as an important mechanism to supportinformed decision-making. It will require a holisticunderstanding and appreciation of the services providedby water at the local, regional and global scales. It will alsorequire understanding of the changing water dynamics andthreats to water resource endowments in the HKH region,particularly in light of the impacts of climate change.The nature of the hydrological regime determines wateravailability and quality, which are variable and continuouslychanging in time and space. In the HKH regionImage: Alex TreadwayImage: Alex TreadwayKhapalu Valley, Pakistan: the HKH region is a vast complex of mountains,valleys and plateausKhumbu, Nepal: snow and ice represents a massive store offreshwater for the HKH region[ 65 ]