2015 Snapshot of Water Security in the Nile, Mekong, and Amazon River Basins

Abstract

Challenges for policy makers and water managers working on river basins are on the rise as ambitious water infrastructure projects, coupled with the uncertainty of global climate change, alter rivers worldwide. Water security implications of new water infrastructure are particularly complex for transboundary river basins, rivers shared by multiple countries. Three transboundary basins—the Amazon, Mekong, and Nile—demonstrate how similar water security challenges manifest risks and possible solutions differently. Common challenges in the Amazon, Mekong, and Nile basins include dam development, extensive land-use changes, conservation for biodiversity, indigenous and traditional communities’ reliance on river resources, and systemic sensitivity to global climate change. Water security as a theory and a tool allows for researchers to take an interdisciplinary approach toward finding solutions and areas of collaboration for addressing management challenges of water infrastructure. Research scientists have the opportunity to serve as a bridge between the data and analysis using water security tools and the policy and decision makers planning development and management strategies. Though there is a lack of consistent monitoring and baseline data collected on many of the world’s transboundary rivers in transition, coordinated contribution from scientists to local and national partners can fill the capacity gap. Fig. 1. Hydropower Dam in upper Amazon Basin, Ecuador © 2009 Elizabeth Anderson.