Tag : Tibet

    China's Hydro-Hegemony Based On Tibetan Plateau's Control Could Spell Disaster

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    Sunil Aswal
    April15/ 2022

    New Delhi: Since Tibet's occupation, China has disrupted the natural flow of rivers by the pursuit of a series of ill-conceived environmental and developmental policies such as the Great Leap Forward and South-North Water Diversion project etc. This has led to a dam-building spree on the Tibetan plateau with disastrous impacts on Asia's major rivers. China is now home to over 30,000 dams, more than the total number of dams in the rest of the world put together, Global Order reported. Since the Asian continent is already water stressed, it is likely that south and south-east Asia could become the flash point for water wars in the future. In such a circumstance, China's hydro hegemony based on the control of the Tibetan plateau could spell economic and ecological, not to mention humanitarian, disasters in the region. Due to these mega dams, many countries especially those in the downstream regions have now started to express serious concerns over the geo-political implications of China's unnatural appetite for dams. Although China has couched its dam building projects as clean energy initiatives, its downstream neighbours fear that China could use water as a political weapon to pressure them into submission and compliance on boundary, trade, and political disputes. India, China's southern neighbour and regional rival, is particularly concerned about China's recent plans to build a mega dam on the Brahmaputra. This super dam that China is planning in Metok County (historically Tibet's Pema Koe region) is expected to be much larger than the Three Gorges Dam - the world's current largest power station. With the completion of this mega dam, China would wield enormous leverage over India and Bangladesh's water economy and ecology, raising ...

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