With a rapidly growing population of 250 million, the Indus river basin in South Asia is one of the most intensively cultivated regions on Earth, highly water stressed and lacking energy security. Yet, most studies advising sustainable development policy have lacked multi-sectoral and cross-country perspectives. Here we show how the countries in the Indus basin could lower costs for development and reduce soil pollution and water stress by cooperating on water resources and electricity and food production. According to this analysis, Indus basin countries need to increase investments to US$10 billion per yr to mitigate water scarcity issues and ensure improved access to resources by 2050. These costs could shrink to US$2 billion per yr, with economic gains for all, if countries pursued more collaborative policies. Downstream regions would benefit most, with reduced food and energy costs and improved water access, while upstream regions would benefit from new energy investments. Using integrated water–energy–land analysis, this study quantifies the potential benefits of novel avenues to sustainable development arising from greater international cooperation.

南亚的印度河流域拥有2.5亿的迅速增长的人口，是地球上耕种最密集的地区之一，缺水严重且缺乏能源安全。但是，大多数建议可持续发展政策的研究都缺乏多部门和跨国的观点。在这里，我们展示了印度河流域的国家如何通过在水资源，电力和粮食生产方面的合作来降低开发成本，减少土壤污染和水资源压力。根据该分析，印度河流域国家需要将投资增加到每年100亿美元，以缓解水资源短缺问题并确保到2050年改善对资源的获取。这些成本可能会减少到每年20亿美元，如果所有人都能获得经济收益，国家奉行更多的合作政策。下游地区将受益最大，同时降低食品和能源成本，并改善水的获取，而上游地区将从新能源投资中受益。这项研究使用水，能源，土地综合分析，量化了因扩大国际合作而产生的可持续发展新途径的潜在利益。