Indo-Ganges River Basin


Visit the Indo-Ganges Basin website    

Key insights on water related issues from Indo-Ganges Basin

 

The Indo-Gangetic basin spans Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. It lies mostly in the Indus-Ganga-Brahmaputra plain, which extends 3,200 km between the mouth of the Ganga (Ganges) River to the east, and that of the Indus to the west. The rivers encompassed are the Ganga, Indus, Beas, Yamuna, Gomti, Ravi, Chambal, Sutlej, and Chenab. The soil is rich in silt, making the plain one of the most intensely farmed areas of the world. Even rural areas here are densely populated. Today, human numbers continue to rise, amplifying pressure on natural resources. The lack of both knowledge and resources to manage these growing pressures has resulted in high levels of poverty, food insecurity and environmental degradation.

 

The basin may be described as a ‘low-productivity-high potential’ region where, in certain pockets, 55 percent of the people live below the poverty line. With appropriate and adequate backstopping, agricultural productivity can be significantly improved—enabling people to profit from the region’s fertile alluvial soils and generous water endowments.

 

The top priority for people living in the region is to raise income and food security.  

 

CPWF addresses a series of problems:

 

Click here to download several published and unpublished documents on water poverty, water productivity, river-linking, hydrology, water use and institutional analysis in the Indo-Ganges Basin

 

The Integreated Database Information System [IDIS] Basin Kits provide baseline data layers (vector and grid) for the Indo-Ganges Basin covering various domains such as climate, agriculture, soil, land use, topography, etc.

 

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