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The Thirsty Dragon: Delaying “South-to-North”?
December 30th, 2008
Via The Wall Street Journal, a new report that – once again – China has decided to delay part of its plan to divert billions of tons of water to its parched north, amid concerns that the massive project could cause previously unexpected environmental damage. As the article notes “…The four-year delay affects the central […]
Read more »A Mideast Peace Canal?
December 24th, 2008
Via Terra Daily, an article on a planned 4.5 billion dollar “Peace Canal” to bring water from the Red Sea to the fast evaporating Dead Sea which could benefit the entire Middle East. As the report notes: “…I think that all the region will benefit from the project,” Israeli Minister of Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: South-North Diversion To Be Accelerated
December 16th, 2008
Via Xinhua, an updated report that the aforementioned 4-year postponement of the massive South-North water diversion has itself been diverted and the project is back on track. As the article notes, “China would accelerate the construction on the country’s huge south-to-north water diversion project next year, head of the project office Zhang Jiyao said on […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Drying Up Quickly
December 14th, 2008
An interesting post by Ying Jia on China’s dwindling water supply. As the article notes: “….Water scarcity is largely a product of China’s wasteful style of economic growth. A World Bank research study showed that in the period 2001-2005, 54 percent of China’s seven main rivers were deemed unsafe for human consumption (World Bank). The […]
Read more »Politics of Water in Central Asia – In Pictures
December 10th, 2008
Via Time, an interesting collection of stark photographs & commentary detailing the water politics of Central Asia, specifically how four former Soviet Republics fight for control of a precious resource. Abundance Central Asia is rich in water, but 90% of it is concentrated in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, above. In Soviet times, the […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Turning On The Tibetan Tap At The Expense of South Asia?
December 9th, 2008
Via The Circle of Blue and The Asia Times, two articles (one here and the other here) noting that – as China becomes increasingly stressed for water, it comes closer to slaking its thirst with Tibet’s Yalong Tsangpo River, known in India as the Brahmaputra. But international interests downstream worry about the impact on the […]
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