Depoliticizing disasters: the need to break down water bureaucracy with the changing climate in South Asia

The 2024 floods in India and Bangladesh, triggered by heavy rainfall and upstream runoff, affected millions and displaced hundreds of thousands. This disaster exposed critical gaps in transboundary water management, especially in the areas of data sharing and early warning systems between the two countries. We argue for the urgent need to depoliticize disasters and prioritize improving cross-border data-sharing mechanisms, adopting a decentralized approach to flood forecasting. Moreover, interdisciplinary strategies that combine both hydrological and socio-political insights are essential to effectively manage the human impacts of such disasters, which are expected to worsen with climate change in South Asia.