Our Work

Our Activities

Scoping Research

To conduct an in-depth study on the role of the media in water conflicts and cooperation in the Brahmaputra. The scoping research will try to understand media and science’s historical and current engagement: How do they work? Where do they find relevant experts? Where do they get their data and figures from? What are the implications of specific framing for water conflicts and cooperation? Does the current political situation influence the media's reporting?

Communication strategy for scientists and media

It will focus on improving communication skills of the scientific community and media through:

Online course:
The aim of the online course will be to enable the scientists to communicate their work in a manner that is easily understood and disseminated by the media. The project will improve and retune an already existing course that at the moment is tailored for the Nile basin, to scale it up as a general course on communication skills for water diplomacy.

Webinar:
For the editors and journalists of the media outlets will be organized as it is usually not possible for them to attend workshops with continuation or at length. The inclusion and capacity building of the editors is significant as no matter how hard the journalist works for a report/story; unless it receives approval from the editors it is a futile exercise.

Knowledge production

Thematic workshop, focusing on aspects like disaster risk management, hydrogeology of the Brahmaputra River, socio-economic dependency on the river, gender and water diplomacy etc., will be conducted to build the capacity of media personnel. To sustain the process of science and media diplomacy for water, connecting the scientific community and media will be vital.

A roster of the scientific community, dividing them on the basis of their expertise will also be generated. While the multimedia stories/video grants would assist in bringing together researchers and media personnel with communities who live in the basin and are dependent on the natural resources of the basin for their livelihoods. A photography competition / exhibition will also be organized either online or during the thematic workshop.

Outreach

Social Media Campaign: In the 21st century, social media campaign is integral as an outreach mechanism for dissemination of information. On twitter, facebook and instagram, hashtags such as #EverydayBrahmaputra would be initiated for posting regular updates.

Podcasts will bring diverse stories from the basin, depicting the local communities’ association with the river from different aspects like social, cultural, economic, spiritual, religious, etc.

Our Publications

Journal

Media reporting on conflicts and cooperation: what does it mean for the Brahmaputra basin?

International Journal of Water Resources Development

Arundhati Deka, Natasha Hazarika, Sumit Vij, Anamika Barua and Emanuele Fantini

This article analyses the media reporting on conflicts and cooperation in the Brahmaputra River basin. We used 2437 newspaper articles published between 2010 and 2020 from the four riparians (China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh) to explain the science–media interlinkages and what print media reports on conflicts and cooperation. We have found that most articles focus on conflicts, especially relating to hydropower development, data and information asymmetry, and disaster governance. There is limited media reporting on the avenues of cooperation such as informal water diplomacy, collaborative research opportunities, and the community and the culture that brings the riparians together.

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Journal

Collective deliberation or just the state (in)action: how do we change the hydrodiplomacy landscape in South Asia?

Water Policy, Vol. 25, Issue no. 1 , pp. 15-22

Natasha Hazarika, Anamika Barua, Sumit Vij, Arundhati Deka, Lena Salame

Hydrodiplomacy in South Asia is in a nascent stage, primarily focusing on data exchange and limited state-to-state interactions, leaving aside an array of organic approaches to understand the facets of water diplomacy and governance. This perspective piece is based on a series of webinars to identify ways to bridge these gaps in hydrodiplomacy in South Asia, highlighting the merit of multi-track diplomacy for embracing the plurality of interests and decision-making. The piece concludes that it is pertinent to build capacities for improving science-media communication, acknowledging and strategizing power asymmetry, and implementing international water law to guide water diplomacy.

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Journal

Hydropolitics intertwined with geopolitics in the Brahmaputra River Basin

WIRES Waters

Tanushree Baruah, Anamika Barua and Sumit Vij

The legacy of the sub-continent has led to a complex geopolitical rivalry in the Brahmaputra River Basin, shared by China, India, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. Each riparian state has a varying interest and development agenda, hindering the identification of common interests for water cooperation. This article presents the intertwining of regional geopolitics with the basin hydropolitics, restraining positive interaction, thus, leading to a status quo in the BRB. While maintaining a purposeful status quo seems to be a prudent move by the riparians, the local communities continue to suffer due to the impasse.

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Report

Webinar series on hydro-diplomacy

IIT Guwahati

The webinar series on hydro diplomacy began from 18th September 2020 with a keynote address followed by an inception webinar on Fundamentals of hydro-diplomacy. Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, delivered the keynote address and briefed about the dying Indian rivers and the impact generated due to water scarcity in our country.

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Journal

Power in water diplomacy

Water International, Routledge, Vol. 45, Issue no. 4, pp. 249 - 253

Sumit Vij , Jeroen Warner & Anamika Barua

Because water connects territories, its use involves collective action challenges and opportunities. Yet that action is complicated by the multiple meanings of water to people. Back in the 1990s, Donahue (Citation1997) noted that water is understood in different ways: as an economic good (in the marketplace), as a political good (in bureaucracy) and as a cultural good (in kinship). Different actors use different perspectives of water to interact with each other, creating water conflicts and varying interests. In each case, power matters a great deal. Still, most of the literature on transboundary water is remarkably power-blind, or at least power-shy. When it appears, power is often seen as a problem. Yet power is also productive, in transboundary waters as much as in Newtonian mechanics. In both cases, it can be argued that nothing happens without the judicious application of power.

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Journal

Re-Interpreting Cooperation in Transboundary Waters: Bringing Experiences from the Brahmaputra Basin

Water MDPI

Anamika Barua, Arundhati Deka, Vishaka Gulati, Sumit Vij, Xiawei Liao and Halla Maher Qaddumi

The paper, bringing evidence from the dialogue, argues that the Brahmaputra Dialogue process has led to a broader understanding of cooperation among basin stakeholders, which could influence water resource management of the basin in the future.

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Journal

Water diplomacy as an approach to regional cooperation in South Asia: A case from the Brahmaputra basin

Journal of Hydrology

Anamika Barua

The article provides an outline of the current issues in the Brahmaputra river basin and illustrates the need for multitrack and multi-stakeholder dialogues in the Brahmaputra region. The paper is inspired by the ‘Brahmaputra Dialogue’ project initiated in 2013, that demonstrates that water diplomacy has to be an inclusive, open, and transparent process involving multiple actors, because such interaction facilitates sustainable water cooperation, not only between riparian countries but also between riparian communities.

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