As the countdown to the Copenhagen UN Climate Summit begins, India's role in building a framework for the new global climate change regime becomes pertinent for two reasons. First, India is the fourth largest carbon dioxide emitter after United States, China and Russia. Hence, with rising global temperatures, the pressure is mounting on India to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Any binding emission reduction measures will have a significant impact on India's economy given the strong linkages between energy consumption, economic growth and environmental pollution. Second, the impact of climate change will be detrimental on the livelihoods of people and on food security. Given this conundrum, what are India's options to effectively mitigate greenhouse gases and at what costs to the economy?

In the wake of global problems such as growing water scarcity, teeming populations, increasing demand for food and bio-fuels, and climate change impacting arable land and its productivity, governments around the world are purchasing land for agricultural purposes in developing nations. It is a question of food security and it is abundantly clear that food is no longer a soft policy issue.

The inception of water resource planning in Bangladesh took place within the broad framework of Flood Control, Drainage and Irrigation (FCDI) programs in the 1960s. A number of water-related development projects were initiated and successfully completed through the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and the Master Plan Organisation (MPO) (now known as the Water Resource Planning Organisation). Around 74 per cent of the population has access to water from improved drinking water sources (Fact Sheet ADB 2008).

The facts are these: Water scarcity is a real and looming threat; while several countries are already below the dreaded 1700 m3 per capita water availability mark, many others are quickly approaching it; most international NGOs have predicted that the worst affected will be those already marginalised, the sick, and the poor, the children and the women. When discussing the various fallouts of water scarcity, such as its impacts on food security, human health, the global economy and its potential to induce conflict, the one fallout that is rarely discussed is the kind that is suffered by women. Which is probably why during the discussion of water resources management strategies, women are almost never consulted. And this has proven to be a serious mistake.

It seems an almost poetic irony that the Middle East, a region rich in one of the world's most coveted commodities of today, is also grossly deficient in one of the world's most coveted commodities of tomorrow. About two-thirds of the world's known crude-oil reserves lie under the MENA (Middle East and North Africa), yet it is the most water-scarce region in the world, housing 12 of the 15 most water-scarce countries. The oil-rich GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) nations, in particular, lack adequate freshwater availability. Countries like Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia yield annual per-capita freshwater resources of approximately 100 cubic meters; the internationally recognized minimal amount of water required per person per year is 1,000 cubic meters.

China is water-scarce. With a per capita water availability of 2259 cubic meters in 2002, China's water resources are barely enough to sustain its massive population of over 1.3 billion. Compared to this in 2002, the United States, with its population of just over 300 million, had a per capita water availability of approximately 10,837 cubic meters per year. Aiding China's water-scarcity is the appalling state of its rivers; rivers like the Yangtze, Mekong, Yellow etc. that originate from the Tibetan Plateau, are all under threat due to numerous reasons like climate change, pollution, over-extraction etc. One of the main threats to the Yellow River, also known as the Huang He, is from desertification.