Transboundary water conflicts are awfully crucial in their nature as they not only endanger the food and water security of the riparian communities but also jeopardize the security and existence of the conflicting nations. Any inappropriate action done by upper riparians directly affects the existence of lower riparians. Therefore they need special care to be dealt with. There are 261 international rivers, covering almost one-half of the total land surface which are shared between two or more nations. The management of international waters has been poorly defined in the international arena. In 1947, after the independence of subcontinent, the Indus Basin was divided into two parts between India and Pakistan. Soon after independence India started to halt the river supplies to Pakistan and closed all supplies to the canals which were crossing the India-Pakistan border. India agreed to restore some of the supplies to Pakistan in May 1948, when quite a pro-Indian temporary agreement was signed. It was, however, generally realized that Pakistan could not live without restoration of the full supplies and on this question there could be no compromise. Direct negotiations between the parties failed to resolve the dispute. Negotiations under the World Bank commenced in May 1952. The World Bank planned to divide Indus Basin Rivers into two parts the eastern rivers, under completely Indian control and the western rivers for unrestricted use by Pakistan. Pakistan was not fully convinced and refused to sign until 1958 but ultimately the Treaty was formalized in 1960 after some necessary modifications. Pakistan, on one hand, was deprived a substantial amount of its waters in the Indus Waters Treaty, but on the other, it also got the right of unrestricted use of western rivers. Pakistan also received some assistance (grants and loans) from the World Bank for construction of replacement works for some water storage and diversions. It is evident that the closure or diversion of river flows in the upstream reaches not only affect the downstream river ecology but also puts the downstream irrigated agriculture at stake. This paper highlights the effects of the IWT on water availability and irrigated agriculture in Pakistan. Study finds that though there are some deprivations of surface waters availability to the Pakistan under the IWT but at the same time there are also some improvements in canal water diversions, which are mainly due to the construction of water storage reservoirs. An increase in the cropped area and crop production also has been observed which owes to many other social, economical and technical factors but all this was not possible without reliable irrigation water supplies.

As economies develop and societies change, emerging sets of challenges are placed on water resources and its governance. Population growth and economic development tend to drive the demand for more water, and push river basins into situations of scarcity. Agriculture, globally the largest user of water, is a major driver of water scarcity, and also the sector that has to bear the consequences of scarcity. Yet governance arrangements the world over have difficulty coming to grips with the management of agricultural water within the larger water resource context. The four major agricultural water governance challenges are: to manage transitions from abundance to scarcity; to deal with the large informal sectors of the agricultural water economy; to adapt to the changing objectives of society; and within each of these challenges, to craft contextspecific solutions. This paper presents examples of these challenges and uses them to derive a conceptual framework to help us understand present agricultural water-use contexts, and to develop context specific solutions. The framework is based on two important and shifting contextual dimensions: the degree of scarcity within a basin, and the degree of formality in water use. Looking at agricultural water governance within this framework shows that some standard prescriptions for water problems may not always be appropriate and that 'second best' solutions can in fact be the best way forward. The challenge for governance is to facilitate the development of these solutions.

As economies develop and societies change, emerging sets of challenges are placed on water resources and its governance. Population growth and economic development tend to drive the demand for more water, and push river basins into situations of scarcity. Agriculture, globally the largest user of water, is a major driver of water scarcity, and also the sector that has to bear the consequences of scarcity. Yet governance arrangements the world over have difficulty coming to grips with the management of agricultural water within the larger water resource context. The four major agricultural water governance challenges are: to manage transitions from abundance to scarcity; to deal with the large informal sectors of the agricultural water economy; to adapt to the changing objectives of society; and within each of these challenges, to craft contextspecific solutions. This paper presents examples of these challenges and uses them to derive a conceptual framework to help us understand present agricultural water-use contexts, and to develop context specific solutions. The framework is based on two important and shifting contextual dimensions: the degree of scarcity within a basin, and the degree of formality in water use. Looking at agricultural water governance within this framework shows that some standard prescriptions for water problems may not always be appropriate and that â??second bestâ?? solutions can in fact be the best way forward. The challenge for governance is to facilitate the development of these solutions | David Molden et al., 'Governing to Grow Enough Food without Enough Water?Second Best Solutions Show the Way', International Journal of Water Resources Development, vol. 26(2), pp.249-263, Informa UK Limited, 2010

As economies develop and societies change, emerging sets of challenges are placed on water resources and its governance. Population growth and economic development tend to drive the demand for more water, and push river basins into situations of scarcity. Agriculture, globally the largest user of water, is a major driver of water scarcity, and also the sector that has to bear the consequences of scarcity. Yet governance arrangements the world over have difficulty coming to grips with the management of agricultural water within the larger water resource context. The four major agricultural water governance challenges are: to manage transitions from abundance to scarcity; to deal with the large informal sectors of the agricultural water economy; to adapt to the changing objectives of society; and within each of these challenges, to craft contextspecific solutions. This paper presents examples of these challenges and uses them to derive a conceptual framework to help us understand present agricultural water-use contexts, and to develop context specific solutions. The framework is based on two important and shifting contextual dimensions: the degree of scarcity within a basin, and the degree of formality in water use. Looking at agricultural water governance within this framework shows that some standard prescriptions for water problems may not always be appropriate and that 'second best' solutions can in fact be the best way forward. The challenge for governance is to facilitate the development of these solutions.

The Buffalo River catchment in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has limited water resource infrastructure development, and climate change is predicted to increase its water supply deficits by exacerbating water distribution inequalities. This study evaluates and optimises current climate change policy plans on the Buffalo River catchments water system to aid in assessing the sustainability of policies that address the aforementioned challenges. The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus approach, which encourages system thinking by considering interconnections among water, energy, and food resources when developing integrated natural resource management strategies, was used to perform the evaluation. The water system's reliability in meeting projected domestic, agricultural, and energy water demands under climate change conditions was used for gauging the sustainability of the development plans. Findings projected the existing water policy plans to increase the domestic water provision by >70% under climate change; however, the <3% increase in irrigation and energy generation water demand coverage yielded a significant contrast in reliability between densely populated areas and regions with extensive agricultural activities. The optimised policy plans, which improved water provision for all considered sectors increased by >20% under climate change, are thus recommended for future water resource management research and dialogue in the Buffalo River catchment.