Author: PK Vasudeva
Publication: The Statesman
Date: November 27, 2011
URL: http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=391491&catid=38
China And Its Damaging Dams
WARS in future are likely to be fought over
the shortage of water for ecological reasons. In recent times, the world has
witnessed a major surge in regional unrest precisely because of this problem.
Tension builds up between two or more countries when an effort is made by
any upper riparian nation to control the waterways of trans-boundary rivers.
Factors such an increase in population, industrialization and other development
activities compel a country to control its waterways. It becomes a point of
friction when such activities affect the livelihood, ecology and growth of
the lower riparian states.
As in other parts of the world, tension is
brewing in South Asia and South-east Asia because of China's unilateral decision
to construct dams and river diversion projects in Tibet. Since 1989, Chinese
engineers have been planning the construction of dams and the south-north
water diversion projects. Beijing is driven partly by internal economic compulsions
and partly by the desire to acquire a dominant external position.
The Tibetan plateau happens to be the world's
largest water tank. All the ten major river systems of Asia including the
Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween and Mekong originate in the
Tibetan plateau. The rivers flowing from Tibet constitute the lifeline of
the world's 6.92 billion people. This includes two billion (29 per cent) in
South Asia from Afghanistan to the Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra basin.
According to media reports, China has already
built a barrage on the Sutlej river. Since November 2010, it has started construction
work for "damming" and diverting the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) in Tibet.
It is also planning to construct 15 dams along the Lancang (Mekong) river.
China's state-owned power companies have already
signed contracts with the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) government for the
development of hydropower in the rivers of Tibet. It wants to develop hydropower
to reduce the development gap between its eastern and western provinces. Further,
it wants to sell the electricity generated to neighbours and thus promote
cross-border integration of economies. The energy produced in Tibet might
also be used to tap the region's rich mineral reserves including uranium,
borax, lithium, copper, zinc and iron.
These activities of China might affect Nepal
as well. The latter's major rivers originate in Tibet before merging with
the Ganga. Karnali, which flows through 507 km, is Nepal's longest river.
Tibet is also the origin of some parts of the Kali Gandaki river, the Budhi
Gandaki and the larger part of Trishuli. Similarly, the major tributaries
of the Kosi, such as the Sun Kosi/Bhote Kosi, the Tama Kosi and Arun originate
in Tibet. Nepal would be affected if dams and diversion projects were built
in upper riparian Tibet.
Any diversion of water from the rivers of
Nepal, that originate in Tibet, would affect the flow of the Ganga, which
desperately needs fresh water from its tributaries. Nepal alone accounts for
46 per cent of the flow in the Ganga and its contribution grows to 71 per
cent during the lean season. If dams and diversion projects are built on rivers
flowing from Tibet into Nepal, it will have a damaging impact on the Ganga.
The building of dams and diversion projects
in Tibet by China is a matter of serious concern for the lower riparian states.
But the Chinese government downplays the issue by claiming that the projects
are in the conceptual stage. On 24 April 2011 a report in the People's Daily
conceded that China would undertake certain measures to ensure strategic water
reserves, diversion of water and recharging ground water.
It would be useful to recall what George Ginsburg
once wrote ~ "China 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 the entire South-east Asia and so to say all
of Asia". This is why China has not signed any bilateral treaty in regard
to the utilization of water resources with any of its neighbours.
The volume of water in many of the rivers
flowing from Tibet to South Asia and South-east Asia is on the decline. This
is partly attributed to the decline in the formation of glaciers in Tibet
and in the Himalayas. Industries and construction activities in Tibet are
polluting the quality of water.
Unfortunately, Beijing is reluctant to share
hydrological data with the lower riparian countries. It has not signed the
1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International
Waterways. It did not notify the lower riparian countries when it started
constructing three dams on the Mekong river. It started work on the Brahmaputra
in November 2010 without sharing information about it with the lower riparian
countries. Can China accept a delegation from India, Nepal, Bangladesh or
Vietnam to inspect the sites of projects that it is developing on the Indus,
Sutlej, Brahmaputra or Mekong?
Of late, China has incurred the opposition
of 263 international non-governmental organizations for its effort to construct
dams on the Mekong. 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.
China's decision to dam all the major rivers originating on the Tibetan plateau
has provoked strong reactions in various Asian capitals from Islamabad to
Hanoi. Indeed, it has been using its river water as a weapon. Some analysts
have predicted wars or war-like situations of high intensity in the region
resulting from China's damming and diversion of Tibetan river waters.
Tibetan land is delicate and it cannot absorb
the damming, river water diversion projects, mining and transportation, industrial
and other related activities. Many fear that such activities would lead to
receding glaciers in Tibet and in the Himalayas. Some of these activities
might even lead to an ecological disaster. The water resources of Tibet should
be accepted as a global commodity. Any distortion in the ecology of Tibet
and its delicate river system is likely to affect the environment.
The lower riparian countries should persuade
China not to construct dams and diversion projects on Tibetan rivers at the
cost of environmental degradation and the livelihood of nearly two billion
people in Afghanistan, the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin and the Mekong basin
countries including Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Jawaharlal Nehru
committed a Himalayan blunder by giving away Tibet. He ought to have studied
geography as sharply he did history and relied less on legal positions of
treaties and agreements.
