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The Thirsty Dragon: Chinese Dam Building Tests Southeast Asian Resilience
March 21st, 2012
Courtesy of HydroLogic, a look at how China’s hydropower development activities on the Mekong and Salween Rivers are a clear illustration of the country’s potentially destabilizing strategy, with both diplomatic and environmental impacts, in Southeast Asia. As the article notes: “…These waterways, along with the Yangtze River (one of China’s domestic targets for intensive development), […]
Read more »The Politics Of Water Security Between Afghanistan And Iran
March 21st, 2012
Via Future Directions, an analysis of the politics of water security between Afghanistan and Iran: Key Points Increasing development and water consumption in upstream Afghanistan negatively affects water supply to Iran, thereby exacerbating latent tensions between the two countries. Iran perceives the construction of hydroelectric dams on the Afghan side of the basins as a […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Hydropower In China
March 21st, 2012
Courtesy of Circle of Blue, a look at how China, the world’s largest energy consumer, is pushing its renewable energy agenda by investing in hydropower. By 2015, the Chinese government expects that the country’s hydropower installed capacity will amount to 300 million kilowatts, thus reducing the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels. The following dams are […]
Read more »The Dam and the Damned: Gibe III Ethiopia
March 21st, 2012
Via Nazret.com, a passionate look at the Gibe III dam project and its potential impact: Three years ago to the week, I wrote a weekly commentary entitled, “Cry Me a Lake: Crime Against Natureâ€. That commentary focused on the plight of tens of thousands of Ethiopians who are sick and dying from drinking the polluted […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: The Shrinking Depths Below
March 19th, 2012
Via China Dialogue, a report on the threats to underground water supplies in China’s arid north: Water stress in northern China is driving some of the biggest engineering projects in human history: pipelines to transfer billions of cubic metres of water from south to north, desalination plants to supply the east coast, proposals to pump […]
Read more »Water “Apartheid” In The West Bank?
March 19th, 2012
From Australia’s World News, a look at whether water is being used as a weapon in the West Bank: In the Middle East, water is more than just a precious commodity — it’s a serious sticking point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a French politician denounced Israel’s policy as “water apartheid,” a deeper look into […]
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