Natural resources play a significant role in economic development. Some worth noting natural resources, among others, are land, water, forests, energy and minerals.
South Asia has natural resources in abundance. However, the uneven distribution of these resources has impeded this region’s balanced development.
India, for example, enjoys about 70 percent of this region’s total natural resources, a lion’s share indeed. However, other countries of this region possess only a small percentage of natural resources, insufficient to speed up overall development.
It has been estimated that the mountainous terrains of Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan have huge hydropower potential. However, only a small percentage of this potential has been utilized or exploited.
The river Ganga is rapidly drying up. Its utilizable potential will be more or less exhausted before too long. The northeast of India accounts for one-third of the river flows or runoff in the subcontinent outside Pakistan.
In fact, India needs to harness the Ganga and its Himalayan tributaries for hydropower generation and flood control. Much of the potential lies in Nepal, which has not developed these resources due to economic and technical problems.
Utilizing water resources and transforming some of these vast surplus flows will not only meet a vital water deficit in this region but will also mitigate floods and promote thriving inland navigation network. However, the development of these immense resources capable of providing main national solutions to Bangladesh and India will not be economically feasible and cannot be optimized without both countries’ cooperation.
Since the bulk of the water resources are derived from common rivers which flow through more than one country, these resources can best be utilized on the bases of joint development of the river basins by the riparian countries. Hence, the use of abundant water resources of the Himalayas, which can help meet the critical shortages of irrigation water and power supplies and flood control efforts require very close cooperation among South Asian countries.
Bangladesh has adequate gas reserves and can avail of the opportunity of gas trade with Bhutan, India and Nepal. In exchange for gas, Bhutan, India and Nepal could export hydropower to Bangladesh.
India is rich in coal reserves, which can be used to meet the rising demand for power in South Asian countries. This would help meet the peak load demands in Bangladesh and Pakistan working to the advantage of all these three countries.
Sri Lanka can maximize power supply through a common power grid due to its link with South India. Likewise, a common power grid could lower transportation costs for supplying natural gas by pipeline. Pakistan could serve as the gateway for natural gas from Indian and Central Asia. Gas pipelines are economically viable propositions for South Asia, but they require transit through more than one country.
In most South Asian countries, the majority of the people use firewood as fuel for cooking and heating. However, the land under the forest cover is less than 2 percent of the world’s total, leading to a crippling shortage of timber and forest resources.
South Asia is especially poor in regard to fuel resources, such as oil and gas and has to depend on imports of such items from other parts of the world. Due to the rapid increase of the cost of oil in the past and the expected rise in its price in future, the energy deficiency is a source of serious weakness for this region’s economies. This undoubtedly points to the need for exploration to discover the hitherto unknown alternative energy sources, such as hydropower, solar energy, wind energy and nuclear energy.
Undoubtedly, all South Asian resources have not been completely explored. Much could be gained from a full exploitation of potential resources. It is conceivable that in future technological development will make it economically feasible to exploit some mineral resources which are estimated to possess less than one percent of the world’s total of gold, copper, silver, lead, diamond, zinc, manganese and lignite.
In the past, some preliminary studies have been carried out by a network of research institutes in most South Asian countries. These studies suggest that if the fuel potential of this region’s resources is exploited, a large measure of self-sufficiency in energy and a large exportable surplus can be utilized. Also, it may be noted that the establishment of economic security in this region is essential for accelerated development on a self-sustained basis.
There are some evidences that the Himalayas are rich in some mineral resources, which are yet to be explored and tapped. The development of Himalayan resources holds the potential for making up some of South Asian resources deficiencies, especially of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Other resources, which are yet to be explored and which hold enormous potential in this region are sea and sea bed. These resources can be harnessed well only if all countries in the region work together.
Of greater significance is South Asian geographical characteristic. It provides natural resources, which transcend national boundaries and hence offer scope for regional cooperation.
The major question regarding South Asian natural resources management is how to manage the land, forest and water resources in order to maintain both their productive capacities and ecological functions. A coordinated approach is indispensable in this regard.
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