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Liquidity Crisis
November 6th, 2016
Courtesy of The Economist, a detailed report on the world’s need to conserve water, use it more efficiently and establish clear rights over who owns it: “NOTHING is more useful than water,” observed Adam Smith, but “scarcely anything can be had in exchange for it.” The father of free-market economics noted this paradox in 18th-century […]
Read more »Water Conflicts Looming Between South Asian Nuclear Powers Pose Global Threat
October 29th, 2016
Via the United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment, and Health, a review of a new book looking at the looming impact of water conflict in South Asia and the potential for Indus Basin development if India, Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan work together: The current political rhetoric between India and Pakistan underlines the risk of […]
Read more »The Parched Tiger: India’s Water Woes
October 29th, 2016
Via the East Asia Forum, some additional commentary on India’s water challenges: Water is a hot topic in India. The most recent boil-over sparked protests that left two dead and masses of vehicles torched. But this is hardly a new phenomenon. In the 1500s, the Mughal emperor Akbar built a new capital in the dry plains of […]
Read more »The Parched Tiger: Would India Really Abrogate the Indus Waters Treaty?
October 27th, 2016
Via Global Risk Insights, commentary on the escalating India-Pakistan tensions surrounding Kashmir, in which New Delhi has not ruled out the possibility that it will abrogate the longstanding Indus Waters Treaty: Recent months have witnessed a dramatic escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan in relation to events in the Kashmir region. The historic standoff […]
Read more »Southeast Asia’s Last Major Undammed River In Crisis
October 27th, 2016
Via Third Pole.net, a look at the Salween River (that flows from the Tibetan Plateau into the Andaman Sea), where China has suspended dams upstream but the Myanmar government is pushing ahead with Chinese backed dams downstream, despite environmental costs and cheaper alternatives: From the snow-capped mountains of Tibet, the Salween rushes through steep gorges […]
Read more »Tajikistan: Progress on Rogun Dam Risks Renewing Tension With Uzbekistan
October 25th, 2016
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), analysis of potential risks arising from the construction of a controversial dam in Tajikistan: Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have made an effort to improve their relationship in the past few months, but recent advances in the construction of a controversial dam could undo some of the progress they have made. According […]
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