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Abstract

Water is regarded as one of the most important aspect for the survival of a society and especially more for fresh water. Fresh water is a very scarce resource with only about 3% and in future will hold the key for any countries existence. It is for prominent for a country like India because of the water ratio of freshwater percentage to population percentage which is at a dismal low of 0.38 for Indian subcontinent whereas the rest of world average is 1.16. Water covers almost 71 per cent of the earth’s surface. Yet, only three per cent of that water is potable, out of which two per cent is held in glaciers and ice caps. Even this percentage is rapidly shrinking due to growing human population, increased economic activity and rapid pollution.  Majority of the water resources available in India and more so in Northeast India are transboundary in nature making the region one of the most hotly contested region of the world. Cooperation along transboundary rivers among hydropolitically sensitive countries is all the more complicated due to the absence of distinct international laws on shared waters. The unresolved boundary issues further exacerbates the problem. North east India as middle downstream riparian in the Brahmaputra river system (spanning across China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh) is highly susceptible to water resource projects (especially storage types) planned by China on the upstream.

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