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The Thirsty Dragon: Tapping the Asian Water Tower Remains a Chinese Pipedream
November 8th, 2017
Via Future Directions International, a look at China’s alleged plans to build a water tunnel from Tibet to western China: Background According to a report in the South China Morning Post, Beijing plans to construct a tunnel, one thousand kilometres in length, to divert water from the Yarlung Tsangpo (as the Brahmaputra River is known in […]
Read more »The Parched Tiger: India’s Groundwater Crisis: The Consequences of Unsustainable Pumping
November 8th, 2017
Via Future Directions International, a report on India’s groundwater crisis: Key Points India’s groundwater usage is the highest in the world and supplies 85 per cent of drinking water in rural areas. Most groundwater is used for agricultural irrigation and an improvement in the industry’s water efficiency is essential for reducing groundwater demand. The depletion […]
Read more »Regional Cooperation and Water Security In South Asia
November 8th, 2017
Via Future Directions International, a two piece series on regional cooperation and water security in South Asia: Key Points Strong governance mechanisms between countries are crucial to ensuring that physical supplies of water throughout the region are maintained and able to sustain agricultural production. India and Pakistan have developed what is considered to be a […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon:China Denies Brahmaputra Tunnel Reports, Promises Cross-Border River Cooperation
November 1st, 2017
Via Zee News, an article on an earlier report that China plans to build a 1,000-km tunnel from Tibet to the water-starved Xinjiang region: China has denied reports that it is working on a 1,000-km tunnel aimed at diverting the River Brahmaputra. It categorically denied the report, which appeared in a Hong Kong-based newspaper, and claimed that […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon and Parched Tiger: Why Do Hydro-Hegemons Cooperate?
October 17th, 2017
Via the Global Water Forum, an article on China’s and India’s transboundary river policies: Hydro-hegemons are states which assert power over other riparian states in a shared river basin. In Asia, both China and India are hydro-hegemons. China is the upstream riparian on many of Asia’s most important international rivers, including the Mekong, Brahmaputra, Sutlej, […]
Read more »Teesta: A Hungry River
October 7th, 2017
Via Third Pole, an article on how a series of dams and the effects of climate change have deeply undermined food security for the people living along the Teesta river in India and Bangladesh: About ten years ago, people in the small village of Gajoldoba on India’s stretch of the transboundary Teesta River started noticing […]
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