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Damming the Mekong Basin to Environmental Collapse
August 3rd, 2019
Via, commentary from Brahma Chellaney on how dam construction on the Mekong River poses a serious threat to the region’s economies and ecosystems: Major dam construction projects have become a favorite pastime of some autocratic governments, with China leading the way. But, far from protecting against water shortages, as supporters promise, large dams are contributing to river […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Myanmar’s Dam Dilemma with China
August 3rd, 2019
Via BBC, a report on the controversial Myitsone dam, at the source of the Irrawaddy river: In 2011, construction work on a massive dam project in Myanmar’s restive Kachin state was halted after large protests. China is now lobbying hard for the work to resume, but as BBC News Burmese’s Soe Soe Htoon found, local […]
Read more »The Unwinnable Contest For Himalayan Water Resources
July 4th, 2019
Via East Asia Forum, commentary on the competing draws on Himalayan water supplies: For millions of years, monsoonal winds have cycled between Asia’s tropical seas and the Tibetan Plateau, delivering snow to its high-altitude mountains and rains to the plains below them. The melting snow and summer rains combine to create a system of rivers […]
Read more »The Water Future Of Earth’s ‘Third Pole’
June 28th, 2019
Via Eurasia Review, a look at the water future of the Himalaya: Himalaya. Karakoram. Hindu Kush. The names of Asia’s high mountain ranges conjure up adventure to those living far away, but for more than a billion people, these are the names of their most reliable water source. Snow and glaciers in these mountains contain […]
Read more »Impact of Hindu Kush and Himalayan “Grand Melt”
May 11th, 2019
Via The Diplomat, a look at the impact that the melting of the Hindu Kush and Himalayan glaciers would have upon the region: In the last century, human migration in South Asia, the world’s most populous and most densely populated region, was largely caused by geopolitics, wars, socioeconomic constraints and environmental disasters. By the end of […]
Read more »Rapid Urbanization Increasing Pressure On Rural Water Supplies Globally
April 11th, 2019
Via Phys.org, an article on a new report examining the increasing competition between cities and agriculture for water: An international team of researchers has carried out the first systematic global review of water reallocation from rural to urban regions—the practice of transferring water from rural areas to cities to meet demand from growing urban populations. They […]
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