How China's Quest For Fresh Water Is Stirring Tensions With Its Neighbors

Image from Umbli

Water Wars? Thirsty, Energy-Short China Stirs Fear -- Seattle PI

BAHIR JONAI, India (AP) — The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering speed as it raked the banks of towering trees and boulders. When the torrent struck their island in the Brahmaputra river, the villagers remember, it took only moments to obliterate their houses, possessions and livestock.

No one knows exactly how the disaster happened, but everyone knows whom to blame: neighboring China.

"We don't trust the Chinese," says fisherman Akshay Sarkar at the resettlement site where he has lived since the 2000 flood. "They gave us no warning. They may do it again."

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My Comment: When I first visited China in the mid 1980s, the first thing that I was told was to NOT drink the water. Later on, I then learned how drastic the water situation was in China, and on how development and urban growth coupled with deforestation had disrupted having a clean and stable fresh water supply. All of this happened over 25 years ago .... so I can only imagine how dire and desperate the situation must be for them today.

Will China change their policies in regards to water .... I doubt it. They want it, and as far as they are concerned .... it belongs to them. As for everyone else .... the Chinese altitude has been and still is "too bad".

WNU Editor: For more info on the death of China's rivers and its quest for water .... and the disastrous consequences of such a policy .... read this article from the Asia Times (and what is remarkable about it, is that it is from 2003). Another good analysis is here.