A Waterfight Like No Other May Be Brewing Over Asia’s Rivers - Polidicks

[quote] [img]https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iNGTD10RG3lk/v0/-1x-1.jpg[/img] On Oct. 1, China said a hydropower project in Tibet was diverting water from a tributary of the Brahmaputra River, which flows into India and Bangladesh, reigniting concern over China’s control of some of the region's biggest waterways that have provided irrigation, transport and life for millennia to much of South and Southeast Asia. India, which fought a war with China in 1962 over a disputed border, is concerned that Beijing could use water as a strategic weapon. Six of Asia’s 10 biggest rivers originate in China, including the Brahmaputra. “India sees red in China’s dam building overdrive,” wrote Rajaram Panda, visiting professor at Japan’s Reitaku University, in a commentary this month in the Eurasia Review. “If China diverts the river, it could have devastating consequences for India’s northeastern plains and also for Bangladesh, either with floods or reduced water flow.” Indian concerns about China turning off of the tap are nothing more than an “imaginary ‘water war,’” according to the Global Times, a newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party’s People’s Daily. But as climate change leads to more extreme weather conditions, demand for fresh water is going to stoke more tensions, said William Laurance, director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. [/quote] More pictures and rest of the story at [url]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-01/a-waterfight-like-no-other-may-be-brewing-over-asia-s-rivers?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social[/url]

Brahmaputra is a shared interest with Bangladesh. Similarly Indus river starts at Chinese Tibet, flowing through India and through Pakistan. It would be interesting if India, Bangladesh and Pakistan could find a common tune regarding the rivers that their lives depend on and China can control.

Things like this kinda worries me. We already have wars over oil. We will have wars over water one day, it seems unavoidable.

Honestly, shit like peak water and peak phosphorous makes it really hard to sleep at night compared to peak oil. Those two things, are nightmarish when you start putting your mind to it. Yeah, without petrol, industry might need to switch out the machines, without water and phosphorous though, agriculture comes to a fucking grinding halt. It's a problem which isn't helped by states like California which for a lack of better words have been pissing off Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Utah like crazy because they refuse to ever fucking take up to agreements that were made for the Colorado River.

[QUOTE=Vlevs;51291460]Brahmaputra is a shared interest with Bangladesh. Similarly Indus river starts at Chinese Tibet, flowing through India and through Pakistan. It would be interesting if India, Bangladesh and Pakistan could find a common tune regarding the rivers that their lives depend on and China can control.[/QUOTE] IIRC, Pakistan and China are on pretty good terms with each other due to both their distrust of India

Thing is, these projects China creates with their dams ends up biting them in the ass more often than not. So really, everyone is screwed.