Re: [Politics_CurrentEvents_Group] Himalayan Water Problems

There are times when damns really are needed. You have to wonder if people should live in areas that are so vulnerable

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 2:02 AM, elaine mckay <glyndon47@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

If environmentalists had let (evil) dams be build in the state of Queensland in Australia, we would not have had the tragety and loss of life that is currently being experienced here. I live in New South Wales, below Queensland. The climate of Queensland is one of long drought and then flood. In the future, there will be long droughts in Queensland, dams would have captured some of this deluge. I know sometimes it is better to leave nature alone. I don't think this is one of those cases.

--- On Thu, 13/1/11, Gary <garyrumor2@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Gary <garyrumor2@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Politics_CurrentEvents_Group] Himalayan Water Problems
To: Politics_CurrentEvents_Group@yahoogroups.com
Received: Thursday, 13 January, 2011, 5:02 AM

Himalayan Water Resource Problems
Himalayan water sources are under assault from climate change, population pressure, pollution and Chinese dams according to Indian experts. The climate change factor is more important than the Chinese dams, although they have an impact in the dry months of winter. The research on the watershed has been piecemeal and needs to be systematically organized and completed to develop a clear international water policy for the region according to experts in India.

Something like half the population of the world depends on water from the Himalayas. There are almost no treaties regulating the water flows and China is aggressively building dams to facilitate the needs of their growing economy. The other nations in the region, mostly all down river from the sources mainly in Chinese ruled Tibet are now becoming aware of a need to regulate the water flows before they run dry.

Tibet it turns out truly is the mother of all nations, at least in eastern Asia. Development of Tibet means disrupting the source of most of the water for south and central China, northern India, Southeast Asia, Pakistan, the Central Asian countries, Bhutan and Nepal. Without some mechanism for monitoring and allocating the water flow, the region is in danger of drying up. Some work, such as fighting climate change is a world wide endeavor, but dealing with pollution, population, and regional development of dams is something that can be taken care of by the affected nations.

Why should we care? With half the population of the world and the fastest growing economies, India and China are critical players in the new world economy and will have decisive say in dealing with global warming. If they fail to take care of the water situation, then the subsequent instability could destroy the current world economic development. That may not seem to be a problem from the vantage point of workers in the USA and Europe who have lost jobs due to outsourcing to Asia, but now that most manufacturing is done in Asia, it would be a shock to the system if that region became unstable due to a lack of water. It could deteriorate into open warfare. India, Pakistan and China are nuclear armed powers and that cannot be forgotten. It would be better for us all if those nations developed treaties and methodologies to properly manage their water resources.

I have not even mentioned the needs of the wild life of the region. Tibet should be left in as primitive a state as possible in my view. I think the Chinese development of that region is going to have grave consequences. The evidence that dam building may have led to the big earthquake in Sichuan is noteworthy. Progress and development are not always good.

From Terraviva

CLIMATE CHANGE: `Water Towers of Asia' Show Cracks
By Keya Acharya

GUWAHATI, INDIA, Jan 12, 2011 (IPS) - A concerted effort to formally document the magnitude and directions of climate trends in the Eastern Himalayas and thereby decide regional adaptation strategies is critical to ensure the region's water security, according to water experts.

In Nepal, the Imja glacier is retreating almost 70 metres per year. In Bhutan, where glacial melt is the least perceptible currently, 25 of 677 glaciers are categorised potentially dangerous, with an `alarming' glacial retreat rate of 20-30 metres per year, says G. Karma Chhopel of Bhutan's National Environment Commission.

It is more important to gather statistics on the effects of climate change than to get preoccupied with China building dams in the region, says Professor Jayanta Bandyopadhyay of the Centre for Development and Environment Policy at the Kolkata branch of the Indian Institute of Management.

"Building more dams when waters are anyway threatened due to climate change is accelerating the issue of water loss. It's a bit like `cutting off your nose to spite your face'," Himanshu Thakkar, of the New Delhi-based South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, told IPS.

Sharing of water is an important issue, says Thakkar. "India needs to leverage its huge trade dealings with China to form a water-sharing accord."

Bandyopadhayay says a conflict-resolution system is a `good idea', "But we still don't know the nature of changes in the region. What will the treaty be based on?" he asks. "I must again stress on the need for developing indigenous climate models for the region. Adaptation strategies will be very difficult without this," Bandyopadhyay told IPS. "The whole issue of Asian Development depends on this."

The Eastern Himalayan mountains - stretching 1,500 miles across Nepal, Bhutan, northern Myanmar, south-eastern Tibet and northeast India - and referred to as the `water towers of Asia' are also known as the Third Pole due to their having the largest glaciated area outside of the two poles.

The region is home to three massive river basins, the Indus in the west, Ganges in the centre and the Brahmaputra in the east, featuring major rivers including the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Xingjian, Chao Phraya, Irrawaddy, Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Tarim, flowing through central, south and south-eastern Asia.

The mountains directly impact water resources in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal - and supply more than 1.3 billion people.

In its efforts to bring together Himalayan nations to act on the impacts of climate change in the region, Bhutan has initiated a series of high-level consultations between Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan and will be holding a Ministerial summit, `Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas' in Oct. 2011 to prepare a joint accord.

Bandyopadhyay suggests a major eastern Himalayan adaptation strategy could include payment for ecosystem services, which would entail judicious use and conservation.

For more of this
http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=54095

From the Times of India

Water wars: India, China & the Great Thirst
Saira Kurup, TNN, Jul 25,
Countries might wage wars over oil but the most valuable resource in the world is water. It's the new oil, the colourless gold that's at a premium because it is becoming scarce.

Today's nightmare is that tomorrow the glass will be empty because water supplies are fast evaporating on account of population pressures, urbanization and now, climate change. No country is likely to be left untouched, but the great thirst will be felt the most in the region that has the world's two most populous countries — India and China.

A new study says the situation will be the bleakest in the basins of major Himalayan rivers, ie our own backyards. The study by the Strategic Foresight Group (SFG), Mumbai is titled `The Himalayan Challenge' and frighteningly predicts that "in the next 20 years, the four countries in the Himalayan sub-region (India, Nepal, China, Bangladesh) will face the depletion of almost 275 billion cubic metres of annual renewable water. For comparison, this is more than the total amount of water available in…Nepal at present."

But why must this region run dry? It is fed by major rivers such as the Yangtze, Indus, Ganges and the Brahmaputra. But the problem is all of them originate in the Tibetan Plateau and will be badly affected by melting glaciers. The report says it may all end very badly because a water deficit will have a cumulative, destructive effect on agricultural production, power generation, food availability and livelihood, forcing all four countries in the sub-region to try and secure water resources. They may even look beyond their borders, leading to geo-political tension.

The point here is interesting. There are global forums that deliberate on oil prices and availability, but disputes over water are generally handled regionally or bilaterally. Sundeep Waslekar, executive director of the SFG laments the basic truth that "there are no global treaties on water. Only 17 nations (which don't include the four aforementioned) have signed the UN convention on non-navigational uses of international water courses, 1997 (which provides a mechanism to deal with trans-border waters)."

Read more: Water wars: India, China & the Great Thirst - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Water-wars-India-China-the-Great-Thirst/articleshow/6212014.cms#ixzz1AqGE9rtE

From New Left Review

KENNETH POMERANZ
THE GREAT HIMALAYAN WATERSHED
Agrarian Crisis, Mega-Dams and the Environment
Since we tend to take water for granted, it is almost always a bad sign when it is in the news; and lately there has been all too much water-related news from some of Asia's most populous nations. The stories have ranged from the distressingly familiar—suicides of drought-hit Indian farmers—to the surprising: evidence that pressure from water in the reservoir behind the new Zipingpu dam may have triggered the massive Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, for example. Meanwhile glaciers, which almost never used to make the news, are now generating plenty of worrisome headlines.

This is a long article for more of this see this link
http://www.newleftreview.org/?view=2788

From The Telegraph

Chinese earthquake may have been man-made, say scientists
An earthquake that killed at least 80,000 people in Sichuan last year may have been triggered by an enormous dam just miles from the epicentre

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai 12:53PM GMT 02 Feb 2009

The 511ft-high Zipingpu dam holds 315 million tonnes of water and lies just 550 yards from the fault line, and three miles from the epicentre, of the Sichuan earthquake.

Now scientists in China and the United States believe the weight of water, and the effect of it penetrating into the rock, could have affected the pressure on the fault line underneath, possibly unleashing a chain of ruptures that led to the quake.

Fan Xiao, the chief engineer of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau in Chengdu, said it was "very likely" that the construction and filling of the reservoir in 2004 had led to the disaster.

"There have been many cases in which a water reservoir has triggered an earthquake," said Mr Fan. "This earthquake was very unusual for this area.

There have been no seismic activities greater than a magnitude seven quake along this particular seismic belt before."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4434400/Chinese-earthquake-may-have-been-man-made-say-scientists.html