Neighbours leave Bharat high and dry for its water supply - By Brahma Chellaney

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Neighbours leave India high and dry for its water supply -- Brahma Chellaney

See:
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2013/02/china-building-more-dams-on-brahmaputra.html

China building more dams on Brahmaputra. Shouldn't Indian
stakeholders be consulted?

Neighbours leave India high and dry for its water supply

By Brahma Chellaney
The National
February 1, 2013

[India shares its water generously with downstream
neighbours, but China takes a different approach. The
result is a water problem India must deal on a high
priority.]

Of all the natural resources on which the world depends,
the supply and demand situation is most critical for
water. There are replacements for oil, but no substitute
for water, which is essential to produce virtually all
the goods in the marketplace.

Asia, not Africa, is the world�s driest continent. The
gap between demand and supply is growing in China, India,
South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia.

This raises a question: can Asia remain the locomotive of
the global economy if it cannot mitigate its water
crisis?

India faces greater water distress than China. China�s
population is not even 10 per cent larger than India�s,
but its internally renewable water resources (estimated
at 2,813 billion cubic metres per year) are almost twice
as large as India�s. In aggregate water availability,
including inflows (which are sizeable in India�s case),
China has virtually 50 per cent more resources than
India.

In 1960, India signed a treaty setting aside 80 per cent
of the Indus-system waters for downstream Pakistan, in
the most generous water-sharing pact in modern history.
And its 1996 Ganges treaty with Bangladesh guarantees
minimum cross-border flows in the dry season � a new
principle in international water law. That treaty divides
the flows of the Ganges almost equally between the two
countries. And now India is under pressure to reserve
about half of the Teesta River�s water for Bangladesh.

But India is downriver from China. About a dozen
important rivers flow into India from the Tibetan
Himalayas. Indeed, one third of India�s yearly water
supply comes from Tibet, according to United Nations�
data. Nations from Afghanistan to Vietnam receive water
from the Tibetan Plateau, but India�s direct dependency
on Tibetan water is greater than any other country�s.

But Beijing, far from emulating India�s water
munificence, rejects the very concept of water sharing
and is building large dams on rivers flowing to other
nations, with little regard for downriver interests. An
extensive Chinese water infrastructure in Tibet will have
a serious effect on India.

Continues at:

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2013/02/neighbours-leave-india-high-and-dry-for.html

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti