The Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA) is a five-year (2016-2021) regional programme supported by the Government of Sweden. This is being jointly implemented by Oxfam and its partners in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar to understand and address challenges related to trans-boundary rivers, and work together to create conditions to reduce poverty of communities living in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna and the Salween river basins.
The ultimate goal (impact) of the project is reduced poverty of marginalized and vulnerable river basin communities through increased access to and control over water resources.
Objectives
The project aims to achieve the following outcomes:
- Government policies and practices in water resources management are more inclusive of community concerns and meet national and international standards.
- Practices of private sector respect community access to water resources actively contributing to reducing conflict.
- CSOs increasingly participate in or influence trans-boundary water governance, women inclusion and resolution of water conflicts.
- Increased participation and influence of local communities and women in trans-boundary water governance, policies & processes
CUTS got involved in the second-year program of TROSA (2018-19) through a short-term consultancy work on ‘Exploring the prospects of Trade and Tourism in the rivers of Barak (Assam), Gomti (Tripura) and Umngot (Meghalaya) in the Meghna basin’. In the third year (2019-20), CUTS organised ‘Nadi baithoks’ in the Meghna basin while in the Brahmaputra basin, our focus was on inclusive cross border trade via waterways. Our study recommendations were adopted in the 2nd addendum to the India-Bangladesh Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT).