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The Thirsty Dragon: North/South Water Resettlement – Success Or Failure?
September 8th, 2011
Courtesy of The Guardian, an article on the human impact and politics of China’s huge project to relocate 345,000 people as part of a multibillion dollar, 50-year mega-project to bring water from the country’s southern rivers to the arid north. But while migrants have been promised new homes, compensation and farmland, many are discovering that […]
Read more »India and Pakistan: Seeking A Bridge Over Troubled Waters
September 8th, 2011
As reported in China Dialogue, water has always been a flash point between India and Pakistan. The two neighbours compete over use of the waters of the Indus River, the backbone of agriculture and industry in both states. As the Indian subcontinent was partied in 1947 to create the new state of Pakistan, the rivers […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Mining Tibet, Drying Up Water?
September 5th, 2011
Via China Dialogue, an interesting article examining the impact that China’s hunt for natural resources in Tibet may have upon rivers in the region: China’s fast growth continues, largely financed by state investment and, until very recently, cheap finance from state-owned banks. Fast growth and massive infrastructure construction require heavy usage of metals, energy and […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Water As A New Weapon In Beijing’s Arsenal
August 30th, 2011
Courtesy of The Financial Times, an interesting article on the potential threat that China would use its control of the headwaters of some of Asia’s largest rivers as a way of extending its power in the region: China has aroused international alarm by using its virtual monopoly of rare earths as a trade instrument and […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Golf Course In China’s Desert Strains Drinking Water Supply
August 20th, 2011
An interesting article discussing some of the local/regional tensions over water use in parched China: “Even before the golf course went into use, the region of Yulin had been thirsty and constantly threatened with drought. Some villagers can afford to take only three baths in their entire lives: once at birth, once before the wedding, […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Bringing The Yellow River Back In The Flow
July 30th, 2011
Via China Dialogue, an interesting article on China’s efforts to regulate and restore China’s polluted, drought-ridden Yellow River which once struggled to reach the sea. As the report notes: “…On one wall of the control centre, a mosaic of TV screens flickers back and forth between the latest satellite photographs and rainfall projections. On another, a […]
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