China: At The Heart of Rising Nile River Conflict
January 19th, 2021
Via Asia Times, a report on the China-financed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam which is Africa’s largest and most divisive development project: The Chinese-financed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), despite a recent breakdown in talks on Africa’s largest development project, risks powering up a range of downstream tensions and rivalries. These run from rising rivalry between Egypt […]
Read more »Mountain Water Supply to Two Billion People Could Change
January 18th, 2021
Courtesy of Scientific American (subscription required), a detailed look at how data about Earth’s 78 most important mountaintops foretell changes in the amount and timing of snowmelt: The nights are long inside a tent 5,300 meters above sea level at the snout of Nepal’s Yala Glacier. At 8:00 P.M., after a meal of Nepali dal bhat (lentils […]
Read more »Asian Water Towers On Tighter Budget: More Runoff Won’t Quench Indus or Ganges Thirst
January 11th, 2021
Via Eureka Alert, notice of a new study on the Asian Water Towers: The Third Pole centered on the Tibetan Plateau is home to headwaters of over 10 major Asian rivers. These glacier-based water systems, also known as the Asian Water Towers, will have to struggle to quench the thirst of downstream communities despite more […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Mekong Levels Reportedly Plummet Due to Chinese Dam Activity
January 6th, 2021
Via The Diplomat, an article on Chinese dam withdrawals on the Mekong: Water levels on the Mekong River have fallen due to the filling of a Chinese dam on the upper reaches of the river in Yunnan province, according to locals and river monitors. The fall was reported on January 4, when locals in the […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon and Parched Tiger: Will China Turn Off Asia’s Tap?
December 26th, 2020
Via Brahma Chellaney, commentary on China’s water pressure on the rest of Asia: China’s megaproject on the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo) is to come up next to Metog (Motuo), just before the mighty river crosses into India. Even after Asia’s economies climb out of the COVID-19 recession, China’s strategy of frenetically building dams and reservoirs on transnational rivers […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon and Parched Tiger: Water – The New Flashpoint in the India-China Stand-Off
December 20th, 2020
Via Byline Times, commentary on China’s plans to build a new dam on the headwaters of the Tsangpo River: At a conference on 26 November Yan Zhiyong, chairman of the state-owned Power Construction Corp of China, announced plans to build a new hydropower dam on one of the largest river’s in the world, which flows […]
Read more »