Now Thats What I call Music..sorry, *News*
From Monday’s Telegraph (”Brahmaputra jitters from China project“):
“…Hints have emerged from China that it may be gearing for a project on the Brahmaputra that threatens drought in India’s Northeast, environment experts and Indian officials claim.
Delhi, however, has decided to ignore the developments and instead volunteered to pay Beijing for help in avoiding floods in the region, government sources here said…
China, despite official disclaimers, has long been suspected of planning to divert the waters of the Brahmaputra — which originates in southwest Tibet as the Yarlung Zangbo or Tsangpo —to its thirsty northwest.
Experts have warned that such a project could trigger an ecological disaster in India’s Northeast and Bangladesh.
In recent weeks, a flood of technical articles has appeared in China backing the diversion plan, indicating Beijing is setting the stage for the project, Indian officials said. They said the Chinese government had also built an airstrip on the river’s banks close to a potential diversion point where a dam could come up…”
So what does our Government do?
Nothing. It just “watches”
However, the Union water resources ministry secretary, Umesh Narayan Panjiar, said: “There are no concrete developments. We are watching.”
…Some like the Asom Gana Parishad MP from Assam’s Lakhimpur, Arun Sarma, feel that the government knows something about the Chinese plans but has been “covering it up”. He had asked water resources minister Saifuddin Soz for a clarification but the answer did not satisfy him.
In his reply on December 17, 2007, Soz had quoted a Chinese spokesperson telling a PTI correspondent that Beijing had no plans to divert the Brahmaputra’s waters…”
If you thought I am being paranoid, read this:
“…China is preparing to build a dam on the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) that is expected to have twice the hydroelectric output as the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtse…This…could lead to seasonal or permanent water supply problems for people in India and Bangladesh, who depend heavily on the Brahmaputra waters…”
and think about what Brahma Chellaney wrote last June “China Aims for Bigger Share of South Asia’s Water Lifeline”
“…As water woes have been aggravated in its north due to environmentally unsustainable intensive farming, China has increasingly turned its attention to the bounteous water reserves that the Tibetan plateau holds.
Several Chinese projects in west-central Tibet bearing on river-water flows into India, but Beijing is loath to share information.
…The 10 major watersheds formed by the Himalayas and Tibetan highlands spread out river waters far and wide in Asia. Control over the 2.5 million-square-km Tibetan plateau gives China tremendous leverage, besides access to vast natural resources.
…Tibet, which existed independently up to 1950, comprises approximately one-fourth of China’s land mass today…
And as water woes have intensified in several major Chinese cities, a group of ex-officials have championed the northward rerouting of the waters of the Brahmaputra in a book enlighteningly titled “Tibet’s Waters Will Save China.”
…As in the past, no country is going to be more affected by Chinese plans and projects in Tibet than India.
…Contrast China’s reluctance to establish a mechanism intended for mere “interaction and cooperation” on hydrological data with New Delhi’s consideration toward downstream Pakistan, reflected both in the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (which reserves 56 percent of the catchment flow for Pakistan) and the more recent acceptance of World Bank arbitration over the Baglihar Dam project in Indian Kashmir.
No Indian project has sought to reroute or diminish trans-border water flows, yet Pakistan insists on a say in the structural design of projects upstream in India. New Delhi permits Pakistani officials to inspect such projects. By contrast, Beijing drags its feet on setting up an innocuous interaction mechanism.Would China, under any arrangement, let Indian officials inspect its projects in Tibet or accept, if a dispute arose, third-party adjudication? If anything, China seems intent on aggressively pursuing projects and employing water as a weapon…
…Beijing has identified the bend where the Brahmaputra forms the world’s longest and deepest canyon just before entering India as holding the largest untapped reserves for meeting its water and energy needs.
Prof Chellaney’c conclusion is sobering:
“The mega-rerouting would constitute the declaration of a water war on lower-riparian India and Bangladesh.”
Is our Government loosing sleep over this?
Not really…Whats a little bit of water between neighbours?
Related Posts:
Incursions?! Nah…you must be joking
As the Government sleeps, dark clouds gather on the horizon…
Arunachal: Sleepwalking into a disaster
Fits a pattern, no?
See also the brilliantly written The Indian Ambassador’s Humiliation, courtesy Apollo.
* Title courtesy: http://www.nowmusic.com/site.html
We only believe in “VASUDEV KUTUBAKAM”
Comment by Pramod | April 4, 2008
George Farnandes in interview with Karan Thapar in devils advocate said- India has surrendered to china. Very true.
Comment by Indian | April 4, 2008
From “We’re timid, and China knows it” by Gautam Mukherjee
Sigh.
Comment by B Shantanu | April 9, 2008