BLOG
The Parched Tiger: Farm Subsidies Are Draining India’s Groundwater Reserves
January 5th, 2025
Via Carbon Copy, a look at how farm subsidies are draining India’s groundwater reserves: Due to the over production of water intensive crops, groundwater levels have plunged by more than 8 meters on average since the 1980s, according to a study India’s underground reserves of water took a hit due to intensive farming practices influenced […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Dam! China Approves World’s Most Expensive Infrastructure Project
January 3rd, 2025
Via The Economist, a report on China’s planned Tsangpo dam, the world’s most expensive infrastructure project which has China’s neighbours on edge: IT IS SOMETIMES called the “Everest of rivers” owing to its extreme topography. One section of the Yarlung Tsangpo falls 2,000 metres over a stretch of 50km (31 miles). But what interests Chinese officials […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China Pushes Ahead with Huge – and Controversial – Dam in Tibet
December 26th, 2024
Via the Washington Post, a report that Beijing has approved plans to dam a gorge in the Himalayas that is three times as deep as the Grand Canyon, despite concerns about the impact on Tibet and India: Chinese authorities are pressing ahead with plans to build a series of enormous hydropower dams across a gorge […]
Read more »Can Climate Break the Ice for India and Pakistan?
November 27th, 2024
Via The Diplomat, a look at how climate and water issues could bring a change in bilateral relations between India and Pakistan: Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit last month was the most high profile Indian diplomatic engagement in Pakistan since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise pit-stop in […]
Read more »With Start of Trilateral Hydropower Trade, South Asia Begins Historic Cooperation
November 21st, 2024
Via The Diplomat, a look at how hydropower is ushering in historic cooperation in South Asia: On November 15, a trilateral power-sharing agreement between India, Nepal, and Bangladesh came into effect. Under the agreement, which was signed on October 3, hydropower-rich Nepal will export 40 MW of electricity to energy-starved Bangladesh through the Indian power grid. Nepal and […]
Read more »Three International Water Conflicts to Watch
November 15th, 2024
Via Geopolitical Monitor, a report on three international water conflicts that bear watching: International water conflicts are a prisoner’s dilemma fundamentally rooted in geopolitics. Neither up nor downriver states can live without it, and water is the lifeblood of development and economic growth. Yet one (upriver) state has a fundamental advantage over the other (downriver) state. […]
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