Two decades ago, the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) was initiated by India and the five ASEAN countries–Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Interestingly, Mekong means ‘Ma (mother) Ganga’. The idea of connecting the two civilizations’ rivers was expressed with confidence by the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as he stated, “We recognize the pragmatic logic of pursuing specific socio-economic goals in the region through sub-regional groupings. We therefore, strongly support Mekong-Ganga Cooperation…” The two river basins present a unique and powerful platform committed to rejuvenating ties and as potential drivers towards a multi-dimensional and modern cooperative framework. The Ganga and Mekong were to facilitate and provide framework for activities broadly defined as the three Cs, namely culture, commerce and connectivity. The idea of using riverine systems, and connecting people from the two river basins was an aspirational outcome that fitted well with India’s Look East Policy, which now is referred to as the Act East Policy. We have often looked at rivers as marking boundaries and in relations to the historical and political landscape. But rivers are also rich spaces of potential integration bringing peace and prosperity and cultural fusion. Thus the civilization understanding is instructive in India’s strategic partnership today and the ASEAN region is no exception.
The former secretary-general of ASEAN and the foreign minister of Thailand, the late Surin Pitsuwan, a key initiator to the MGC and a great friend of India, had resolutely stood for social cohesion and democratic values in his long and distinguished career. In his visit to India in August 2017, he had strongly emphasised on these endearing values as he envisioned India and the South-east Asian countries as a shared cultural heritage. Few months later he passed away. The commonalities in terms of such values – the democratic, the social, the cultural and the political are strong drivers to the MGC.
In the recent MGC ministerial meeting (August 2019) an action plan 2019-2022 was chalked out with water resources management as a key area of cooperation. India’s foreign minister observed, “The MGC is as much a celebration of our long and rich history of trade, cultural and people-to-people exchanges as it is a vehicle to advance modernday cooperation to bring progress and prosperity to our peoples.” Cooperation on water resources essentially encompasses a host of activities including the efficient use of water, water harvesting, water data collection, flood and drought management and disaster reduction, groundwater management, water quality monitoring, etc. In the last two decades of the MGC, India’s involvement in water cooperation through Line of Credits in irrigation projects, storage dams and hydro-power projects in the lower Mekong region has been noticeable. Some have been completed and some are on-going. India has now offered to conduct training programmes and workshops in water resource management and community farming.
Future efforts on water cooperation between India and the South-east Asian countries will require building a stronger coordination mechanism. There is also a strategic significance to this which the MGC should not ignore. The Mekong like the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna is a lower riparian basin and the common upper riparian country is China. The Chinese upstream policies are bound to have an impact on downstream water uses. Evidences suggest that the drought conditions in the lower Mekong basin in 2019 was a result of Chinese upstream dams withholding water. Likewise the Chinese action on the Tsang-po that becomes the Brahmaputra in India is far from transparent. It is increasingly becoming clear that China uses rivers to leverage its political and strategic interest. Since China is a common concern it will be helpful to think about a lower riparian coalition of countries on these rivers so as to harmonize water policies, develop legal and regulatory water regimes and where possible put diplomatic pressure on upstream China for new set of dialogues and cooperation on water issues.
The nearest to a lower riparian coalition is the existence of a global 13-member delta coalition of countries of which Vietnam, Myanmar and Bangladesh are a part. Many of the world’s deltas are now facing an existential crisis. Deltas are formed from sediments carried downstream by rivers as it meets the sea. The continuous flow of rivers is critical to maintaining the delta surface and helps in keeping the delta surface above sea level. Apart from the various water cooperation that have been listed in the MGC, cooperation on the delta are equally important. The Mekong has a vast delta and the Sunderban is the world’s largest delta system formed by the great rivers of South Asia. These deltas are critical hotspots of food production. Vietnam’s Mekong delta alone supplies almost 20 per cent of the world’s rice and accounts for Vietnam being the second largest producer of coffee in the world. On the other hand, the Sunderban delta is a unique ecosystem and has the largest mangrove forest in the world. Both these are fast becoming impacted by socio-economic development and climate change-induced sea level rise as well as flood pulse changes due to upstream water diversion by China. A thorough understanding of the river delta’s long-term dynamic is therefore crucial for an informed management of water resources. It is of significance that the Mekong-Ganga regions exchange knowledge on the deltas and attract international attention to its vulnerability.
Rivers are now a key driver to India’s strategic partnership. For example, the Ganga-Volga dialogue is a new space of engagement between India and Russia. Similarly, Ganga-Danube can become an important symbol to drive water cooperation between EU-India. The leadership in India is receptive to rivers and water engagement that can help in building a sound edifice of mutual confidence and open further areas for cooperation on commerce, connectivity, culture and climate change.
Dr. Uttam Kumar Sinha