Tibetan waters crucial for India's future
Future wars are likely to be fought over water due to its scarcity. Tension builds up when an upper riparian country tries to control trans-boundary waterways. Population surge and industrialisation compel a country to control waterways, especially when such activities begin to affect the livelihood, ecology and growth of lower riparian countries.
Tension has been growing in South Asia due to China's unilateral decision to construct dams and river diversion projects in Tibet. Since 1989, China has been planning to develop south-north water diversion projects partly driven by internal economic compulsions and partly by the desire to acquire a dominant external position.
The Tibetan plateau is the world's largest water reservoir. Asia's 10 major river systems including the Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween and Mekong originate here. Of the world's 6.92 billion people, it is the lifeline for nearly two billion (29%) in South Asia — from Afghanistan to the Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra basin and in Southeast Asia.
China has already built a barrage on the Sutlej. It started construction work to divert the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) in Tibet in November 2010.
There are also reports that China's state-owned electric power companies have already contracted with the Tibetan Autonomous Region government for the development of hydropower in different rivers of Tibet. China is also working towards developing road connectivity with Nepal and other South Asian countries.
Some of these Chinese activities might affect Nepal because some of Nepal's major rivers originate in Tibet before finally merging into the Ganga. Of them, the most important is Karnali (507 km), Nepal's longest river. Parts of Nepal's other major tributary systems also originate in Tibet. Similarly, the major tributaries of the Kosi, like the Sun Koshi/Bhote Koshi, the Tama Koshi and Arun originate in Tibet. Nepal would be affected seriously if dams and diversion projects were built in upper riparian Tibet on rivers like the Karnali in the west, Gandaki in the central and Kosi in the eastern part of the country.
Any diversion of waters from Nepalese rivers originating in Tibet would directly affect the Ganga's flow.
Perhaps, China well understands what George Ginsburg wrote: that it could dominate the Himalayan piedmont by virtue of holding Tibet and by doing so it could even threaten the Indian subcontinent and thereby further threaten all of Southeast Asia and by extension all of Asia. This is one of the reasons why China has so far not signed any bilateral treaty in regard to the utilisation of water resources with any of its neighbours and has also not signed the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Waterways.
Of late, China has drawn strong opposition from 263 international NGOs for its effort to construct dams on the Mekong River. These NGOs feel that China has been using the water resources in Tibet as a political tool. As such, they want a moratorium on the lower Mekong dams for at least 10 years.
Tibetan land is delicate and it cannot absorb the damming, river water diversion projects, mining and transportation, industrial and other such activities, which would lead to receding glaciers in Tibet and in the Himalayas. Unfortunately, some of these activities might invite an eco-disaster resulting in the meltdown of Himalayan glaciers, further resulting in the drying of rivers.
The best strategy for the lower riparian countries should be to engage China in a dialogue process and persuading it not to construct dams and diversion projects on Tibetan rivers at the cost of environmental degradation and the livelihood of nearly two billion people living in India and Afghanistan, the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghana basin and the Mekong basin countries including Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The writer is a Chandigarh-based columnist on international relations and trade- PK Vasudeva
Future wars are likely to be fought over water due to its scarcity. Tension builds up when an upper riparian country tries to control trans-boundary waterways. Population surge and industrialisation compel a country to control waterways, especially when such activities begin to affect the livelihood, ecology and growth of lower riparian countries.
Tension has been growing in South Asia due to China's unilateral decision to construct dams and river diversion projects in Tibet. Since 1989, China has been planning to develop south-north water diversion projects partly driven by internal economic compulsions and partly by the desire to acquire a dominant external position.
The Tibetan plateau is the world's largest water reservoir. Asia's 10 major river systems including the Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween and Mekong originate here. Of the world's 6.92 billion people, it is the lifeline for nearly two billion (29%) in South Asia — from Afghanistan to the Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra basin and in Southeast Asia.
China has already built a barrage on the Sutlej. It started construction work to divert the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) in Tibet in November 2010.
There are also reports that China's state-owned electric power companies have already contracted with the Tibetan Autonomous Region government for the development of hydropower in different rivers of Tibet. China is also working towards developing road connectivity with Nepal and other South Asian countries.
Some of these Chinese activities might affect Nepal because some of Nepal's major rivers originate in Tibet before finally merging into the Ganga. Of them, the most important is Karnali (507 km), Nepal's longest river. Parts of Nepal's other major tributary systems also originate in Tibet. Similarly, the major tributaries of the Kosi, like the Sun Koshi/Bhote Koshi, the Tama Koshi and Arun originate in Tibet. Nepal would be affected seriously if dams and diversion projects were built in upper riparian Tibet on rivers like the Karnali in the west, Gandaki in the central and Kosi in the eastern part of the country.
Any diversion of waters from Nepalese rivers originating in Tibet would directly affect the Ganga's flow.
Perhaps, China well understands what George Ginsburg wrote: that it could dominate the Himalayan piedmont by virtue of holding Tibet and by doing so it could even threaten the Indian subcontinent and thereby further threaten all of Southeast Asia and by extension all of Asia. This is one of the reasons why China has so far not signed any bilateral treaty in regard to the utilisation of water resources with any of its neighbours and has also not signed the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Waterways.
Of late, China has drawn strong opposition from 263 international NGOs for its effort to construct dams on the Mekong River. These NGOs feel that China has been using the water resources in Tibet as a political tool. As such, they want a moratorium on the lower Mekong dams for at least 10 years.
Tibetan land is delicate and it cannot absorb the damming, river water diversion projects, mining and transportation, industrial and other such activities, which would lead to receding glaciers in Tibet and in the Himalayas. Unfortunately, some of these activities might invite an eco-disaster resulting in the meltdown of Himalayan glaciers, further resulting in the drying of rivers.
The best strategy for the lower riparian countries should be to engage China in a dialogue process and persuading it not to construct dams and diversion projects on Tibetan rivers at the cost of environmental degradation and the livelihood of nearly two billion people living in India and Afghanistan, the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghana basin and the Mekong basin countries including Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The writer is a Chandigarh-based columnist on international relations and trade- PK Vasudeva
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