Context

• World Water Day 2025, observed globally on March 22, was marked by a timely and urgent theme: Glacier Preservation.
• This theme reflects a growing global consciousness of the critical state of the cryosphere, the Earth's frozen components, and its indispensable link to freshwater availability and marine health.
• Coinciding with the United Nations’ designation of 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, this year also initiated a Decade of Action on Cryospheric Science (2025–2034).
• In this context, the discussion of global water challenges has evolved to encompass the entire hydrological continuum, from alpine glaciers to the ocean, urging a rethinking of existing water governance models.

Water, Glaciers, and Global Sustainability

• The United Nations’ World Water Development Report 2025, titled ‘Mountain and Glaciers, Water Towers’, has brought into sharp focus the foundational role that mountain glaciers play in sustaining ecosystems and human populations downstream.
• Melting glaciers, a direct consequence of climate change, are not only a signal of planetary distress but also a profound threat to water security.
• The degradation of the cryosphere disrupts the flow of freshwater, influencing everything from agriculture to energy production and domestic water supply.
• Simultaneously, the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) underscores parallel threats to marine ecosystems: rising sea levels, increasing sea surface temperatures, and biodiversity loss.
• What connects these two seemingly distinct environmental spheres, glaciers and oceans, is water itself.
• Yet, conventional water management practices fail to acknowledge this fundamental linkage.

The Missing Link and Framework for Integrated Water Governance

• The Missing Link: From Mountains to the Sea
  • Water, in its journey from the mountaintop to the ocean floor, is subject to an intricate web of human interventions.
  • Dam construction, irrigation, pollution, and excessive groundwater extraction all alter natural flow patterns.
  • These disruptions compromise not only inland freshwater availability but also the integrity of coastal and marine ecosystems, which rely on consistent freshwater inflows to maintain salinity levels, sediment transport, and ecological balance.
• Framework for Integrated Water Governance: Source to Sea (S2S)
  • Recognising this, the Source-to-Sea (S2S) approach has emerged as a framework for integrated water governance.
  • First articulated in the Manila Declaration (2012) and reinforced by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the S2S paradigm calls for systemic cooperation across freshwater, coastal, and marine domains.
  • It insists that water systems should no longer be managed in isolation, advocating instead for holistic, inclusive strategies involving governments, scientists, civil society, and local communities.
  • The S2S platform, now hosted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since January 2025, is gaining traction globally.
  • It promotes a socio-ecological perspective, recognising that effective water management must be context-specific, ecosystem-based, and attuned to both scientific evidence and societal needs.

India’s Water Woes: A Case for Integrated Thinking

• India exemplifies many of the global challenges the S2S approach seeks to address.
• India struggles with acute water stress, regional disparities in availability, rampant pollution, and a growing dependence on declining groundwater reserves.
• A 2018 NITI Aayog study projected that water stress could affect 600 million Indians and cause a 6% loss in GDP.
• Further, data from the Central Pollution Control Board (2022) highlight widespread river pollution, with 311 critically affected stretches across 30 states and union territories.
• Groundwater, which supplies over 60% of irrigation and 85% of drinking water, is being depleted unsustainably in states like Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan.
• Meanwhile, untreated solid waste and sewage continue to pollute rivers and lakes, making waterborne diseases and ecosystem degradation persistent threats.
• Despite these crises, India’s water governance remains fragmented and sectoral.
• Jurisdictional overlaps between panchayats, state governments, and national bodies complicate decision-making.
• The absence of a unified, basin-level strategy hinders effective management and stifles innovation.

Policy Gaps, Missed Opportunities and The Way Forward

• Policy Gaps and Missed Opportunities
  • Although India has periodically updated its National Water Policy, starting in 1987 and continuing through efforts in 2015 and 2019, the S2S framework remains marginal to policy discourse.
  • Existing initiatives tend to be localised and lack the integrative depth needed to address upstream-downstream dynamics.
  • Notably, two S2S-based case studies are currently under consideration: one focuses on nutrient management in Delhi’s waterbodies, and another examines human settlement impacts across the Indo-Gangetic Basin.
  • These pilot efforts, while promising, must be scaled and institutionalised to reflect the interconnected realities of water systems.
  • Moreover, scientific insights must be more seamlessly integrated into policymaking, bridging the persistent gap between data, planning, and implementation.
• The Way Forward: Embracing the S2S Paradigm
  • To ensure water security, ecosystem health, and climate resilience, a shift toward a Source-to-Sea framework is imperative.
  • The approach aligns directly with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and 14 (Life Below Water).
  • Specifically, it offers a roadmap for linking Target 6.5 (integrated water resources management) and Target 14.1 (reducing marine pollution from land-based activities).
  • A successful transition to the S2S model requires:
    • Stakeholder inclusion across all levels—local to global;
    • Cross-sector collaboration between land, water, and ocean governance bodies;
    • Scientific rigor through tools like transboundary diagnostic analysis;
    • Policy innovation rooted in socio-ecological systems thinking.
  • India, with its vast river networks and extensive coastline, stands to gain immensely from adopting this integrated approach.
  • Doing so would not only address domestic water management failures but also contribute meaningfully to global environmental goals.

Conclusion

• Water is the thread that stitches together the Earth’s most vital systems, from icy peaks to coral reefs, from rural farms to coastal megacities.
• As the world observes the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, and as we step into a critical decade for cryospheric and ocean science, the call for an integrated Source-to-Sea vision has never been more urgent.
• For India and the world, reimagining water governance through this lens is not merely an environmental necessity, it is a developmental imperative.