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Transboundary water and air resources could benefit from coordinated management

• When considered together, India's planned hydropower facilities in the Indus River Basin have a capacity to affect downstream flow in Pakistan. While analysis suggests this effect could be minimal, the full timing and magnitude of potential changes in downstream flows needs further modeling and investigation.
• In the premonsoon burning season (April to May), fire activity is observed in both India's and Pakistan's Punjab regions, and this burning contributes to air pollution both within each country and across their shared border.
• In the postmonsoon burning season (October to November), when pollution levels are highest, agricultural burning is almost entirely concentrated in India's Punjab region. Atmospheric transport pathways indicate that this pollution flows primarily to the southeast, where it affects air pollution in other regions of India, but it generally does not cross the border to Pakistan.

An important, yet sometimes overlooked, potential flashpoint between India and Pakistan is the ongoing discourse by governments, news media, and citizens over transboundary water resources and air quality between the two countries. Each nation has continued to voice concerns over its perceived impacts from water resources development plans and air pollution from agricultural burning. Yet conversations about shared air and water resources between the two nations could benefit from tangible science and analysis on the actual causes and effects of water and agricultural management activities. This report is an initial step in that direction. The authors present the results of a preliminary pilot study intended to spur future, in-depth research. Researchers provide an assessment of the potential capacity of 13 hydroelectric projects to effectively control downstream flows in Pakistan along the Chenab River — a major tributary of the Indus River — which has its source in India and flows through both nations. Researchers also examine the influence of agricultural burning from Punjab State in India, as well as from an approximately equivalent area across the border in Pakistan, on air pollution in both countries. Finally, the authors detail the implications of this research on policy debate and decisions in South Asia and outline follow-on research that could be instrumental to formulating policies related to the shared use of water and air between India and Pakistan.

• Chapter One

  Stressed Resources: Water and Air

• Chapter Two

  Water: Sharing the Flow?

• Chapter Three

  Clearing the Air

• Chapter Four

  Policy Implications and Future Work

• Appendix A

  Geopolitical Context

• Appendix B

  Atmospheric Back Trajectory Analysis