The Yamuna catchment area of the National Capital Territory is one per cent of the river's total catchment area but it generates more than 50% of the pollutants found in the Yamuna. The crucial stretch is a mere 22-km-long portion of its 1200 kilometre journey. Waste water with little or no oxygen flows through this stretch. TERI studies say that more than 70% of the 84 districts that make up the Delhi sub-basin, are water-stressed due to depletion and degradation of quality of ground and surfac more...

'This paper explores two propositions regarding international river basins: 1) cooperative development of international rivers offers unique economic advantages over unilateral development; and 2) benefit sharing is a necessary condition for facilitating this cooperation. Despite the intuitive appeal of benefit sharing, clear benchmarks and good practices in structuring agreeable benefit sharing arrangements are lacking. Lessons from past experience are critical for guiding emerging regional ins more...

'This document is an output from the OECD Development and Climate Change project, an activity being jointly overseen by the Working Party on Global and Structural Policies (WPGSP) of the Environment Directorate, and the Network on Environment and Development Co-operation of the Development Co-operation Directorate. The overall objective of the project is to provide guidance on how to mainstream responses to climate change within economic development planning and assistance policies, with natural more...

'This report develops an integrated economic-hydrologic river basin model and applies it to the Maipo River Basin in central Chile. Policy simulations based on the modeling framework can serve as a guide for water resource managers and policymakers in designing appropriate water policies and establishing reform priorities for water resource allocation. Alternative analyses undertaken for the Maipo basin—a mature water economy with limited resources and competition for water across all water-us more...

'The upper Blue Nile basin harbors considerable untapped potential for irrigation and hydropower development and expansion in Ethiopia. Numerous hydrologic models have been developed to assess hydropower and agricultural irrigation potential within the basin, yet often fail to adequately address critical aspects, including the transient stages of large-scale reservoirs, relevant flow retention policies and associated downstream ramifications, and the implications of stochastic modeling of variab more...

'To mitigate a drinking water crisis in Kathmandu valley, the Government of Nepal initiated the Melamchi Water Supply Project in 1997, which will divert water from the Melamchi River to Kathmandu city’s water supply network. In the first phase, the Project will divert 170,000 cubic meters of water per day (at the rate of 1.97M3/sec), which will be tripled using the same infrastructure as city water demand increases in the future. The large scale transfer of water would have farreaching implica more...

A "coastal ecosystem" includes estuaries and coastal waters and lands located at the lower end of drainage basins, where stream and river systems meet the sea and are mixed by tides. The coastal ecosystem includes saline, brackish (mixed saline and fresh) and fresh waters, as well as coastlines and the adjacent lands.

Afognak coastline, Kazakof Bay, 1986. Photo FWS.

All these water and land forms interact as integrated ecological units. Shorelands, dunes, offshore islands, barrier islands, more...

EPA and the Corps of Engineers have jointly issued a legal memorandum that interprets the June 19, 2006 Supreme Court decision in the consolidated cases Rapanos v. U.S. and Carabell v. U.S. (known as the "Rapanos" decision). The guidance is being released to Corps of Engineers and EPA field offices to ensure nationwide predictability, reliability, and consistency in identifying wetlands, streams and rivers subject to the Clean Water Act (CWA). The EPA/Corps guidance reflects the agencies’ inte more...

EPA is now accepting proposals for water quality trading or other market-based projects through its Targeted Watersheds Grants Program. Projects must address reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment, or other pollutant loadings that cause low oxygen levels in local waters and which enter the Mississippi River system. Projects must be located in one of the three Mississippi River sub-basins with the highest nutrient loads contributing to hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: the Ohio River, the more...

What is the condition of our waters? EPA, states, tribes, territories, and interstate organizations regularly monitor and report on the physical, chemical, and biological condition of surface waters such as rivers, lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters. These reports may be national in scope and based on statistical survey techniques, or biennial water qualitiy assessment reports submitted by states, tribes and others and summarized by EPA for Congress.