Liu Di  Shiping Tang & Yuting Zhou

Recently, India authority generates the goodwill to Pakistan and tends to plan a meeting with Pakistan during Shanghai cooperation organization meeting. This is the first positive signal India authority has released from the tense relation between India and Pakistan. As we all know, there exists a series of problem between the two countries. Among these thorny problems, water resource dispute is an important factor that affects the direction of bilateral relations. That is because the high strategic value and position of water resources play a decisive part in their important status in global resource allocation. As for countries sharing international rivers, sharing the water resource means there may occur conflict and dispute resulting from the same water resource. Therefore, Water environmental issues such as the development of water resources in international rivers, water resources distribution, water delimitation and national territorial sovereignty tend to lead to water disputes among countries sharing rivers.

Cross-border water disputes mainly concentrate in the following conditions: the shortage of cross-border water resources, the development and unreasonable distribution of cross-border water resources, the water ecology pollution of international rivers, and the sovereignty competition of cross-border rivers. The above are the frequent causes for the outbreak of water resource disputes among sharing countries.

There are various factors may arise the cross-border water dispute, the population factor is the leading factor for this issue. With progressively increasing number of population and expanding demand for the finite water resource, the tendency of water stress is more and more serious. The influencing factors of cross-border water dispute also include other reasons, such as politic, history, culture, religion and etc. The issue of cross-border water resources is not only due to the lack of water resources, but also because of the irrational development, distribution, water pollution and territorial sovereignty of water resources. After the emergence of water disputes between countries, the political, economic and social crises of the two countries will come one after another. Poor countries with backward economy and technology, tend to suffer most in water disputes frequently.

Relation between India and Pakistan often tends to be strained because of cross-border water resource. Disputes among water-sharing countries often occur just resulting from the development and distribution of water resources, no matter from the effect of natural factor, social factor or technical factor. To some extent, water disputes have weakened political trust between water-sharing countries, brought pressure on political ties between countries, and brought more uncertainties to water cooperation between countries. Along with the development of global economy, cooperation between adjacent regions are more frequent.

Joint development management and reasonable water resources distribution among cross-border water-sharing countries have become the main contents of relative cooperation. As a shared river between India and Pakistan, there has been dams in the upstream of The Indus river built by the India authority to cut off the flow and reduce the water supply to the downstream area, which affects Pakistan's domestic water supply. Hence the talk of "water threats" between India and Pakistan is widely reported and speculated. The water dispute has turned the weak mutual trust between India and Pakistan into deficit, and the friendly development and water cooperation between the two countries will face the challenge of crisis of confidence.

In fact, as for the issue of cross-border water resource, the water-sharing countries are easier to negotiate, comprise and cooperate. On the contrary, the possibility to take extreme measures (such as water wars) to solve the problem is less. A study by Oregon state university found that from 1948 to 1999, there were 1,831 incidents related to international rivers, about 30% of which were water disputes, most international rivers tend to water cooperation. Looking ahead to the development process of international relations, it is easy to see that most cross-border water disputes have given up the "zero-sum game" thinking, and changing to the "positive-sum game" thinking and the development model of cooperation, so as to achieve win-win results. Cooperation on international river water resources can improve the economic performance of countries sharing rivers.

The governments of the United States and Canada cooperate in the development of the Columbia river, a shared river between the two countries, based on the principle of mutual benefit and mutual accommodation, in order to achieve the maximum water benefit of both sides. According to a separate agreement between the U.S. and Canadian governments, Canada, the country situated in the upstream of the river, has built three large reservoirs to regulate runoff and meet the flood control and power generation needs of the country downstream more efficiently. In addition, in the downstream of the river, the United States has built the Riby Dam in its territory. After the dam was completed, the backwater of the reservoir flooded to the Canadian territory within 67.6km. The above four reservoirs are at least twice the capacity of the Columbia river basin.

Furthermore, there are 39 large-scale hydraulic electrogenerating projects in the Columbia basin, and the cooperative development of the Columbia river between the United States and Canada has brought huge economic benefits in terms of flood control and hydraulic electrogeneration. Cooperative development has brought great economic benefits to both the United States and Canada, realizing the development trend of mutual benefit and win-win. Therefore, strengthening bilateral water resources cooperation between India and Pakistan is an important way to resolve water disputes, and can also promote the improvement of bilateral relations and boost regional peace and development.