Climate change and the Ganges Basin

Introduction The Ganges Basin and its downstream delta, covering an area of roughly 1.2 million km2 and home to more than 500 million people living in China, Nepal, India and Bangladesh, is the most populous river system in the world. People living in the region have long coped with the extreme temporal and spatial climatic variability that characterizes the South Asian monsoon, and continue to be highly exposed to its irregularities today (World Bank, 2013). Meanwhile, the population density of the Gangetic Plain and Delta regions of the basin is among the highest in the world, poverty remains widespread and environmental degradation is acute (Hamner et al., 2006). Due to the confluence of geographic and climatic features (e.g. exposure to high rates of sea level rise and tropical storms), low development, and high population density and freshwater dependence, downstream portions of the basin have been listed among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change (Ali, 1999). Meanwhile, remoteness, high slopes, thin soils and climatic variability also render its mountainous regions vulnerable to disturbance.

Duke Scholars

Author Marc A. Jeuland Sanford School of Public Policy