There has been a spate of reports recently about China’s grandiose river water translocation programme. All these suggest that India needs to be wary about the programme’s consequences for its Northeast, a region that relies heavily on water flowing in from across the border. The threat comes essentially from Beijing’s ambitious “South-to-North Water Diversion Project”, a plan for the massive transfer of water from its water-rich southern region to its water-scarce northern tracts. On its completion, this vast water network will not only carry water from the Tibetan Brahmaputra to the parched northern areas and the rapidly dying Yellow River, but will also connect China’s four main rivers – the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Huaihe and the Haihe. While construction of myriad dams and storage structures for diverting Brahmaputra water will affect India and Bangladesh, similar plans for the Mekong bode ill for countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Besides, such a massive manipulation of the natural water bodies will inevitably affect the hydrology, geology and environment of the whole land mass encompassing China and its neighbourhood. Read more
