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Tibet Set to Become Next Flashpoint: Danielle Mitterrand
TibetNet
Monday, June 14, 2004
New York, June 11 - As neighboring countries find themselves drawn into
unwanted disputes over ever shrinking transboundary river systems, Tibet is
poised to become a major international flashpoint, said Mrs. Danielle
Mitterrand, Former First Lady of France, in a press statement issued on 8
June.
Speaking to reporters in Agen, southern France, Mrs. Mitterrand said that
war over oil is well on the way to becoming a thing of the past, but that
war over water is likely to break out in different parts of the world.
Mrs. Mitterrand is not the first person to raise a specter of war over
water. It is the subject of hundreds of scholarly papers and conferences, as
indeed it has been the worry of environmentalists over much of the past two
decades. A former senior president of the World Bank predicted famously that
the next World War will be over water.
Mrs. Mitterrand was referring to the silent tension brewing between China
and Tibet's southern neighbors, who view Beijing's hydrological development
in Tibet with mounting apprehension.
As Asia's principal watershed, Tibet is the source of the world's 10
greatest river systems. The total area irrigated by these rivers, from the
Machu basin in the east to the Senge Khabab in the west, covers 47 per cent
of the earth's human population.
Deforestation on the Tibetan plateau over the past four decades have already
resulted in extremely high sediment rates. The Machu (Huang Ho, or Yellow
River), the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra), the Drichu (Yangtze), and the Senge
Khabab (Indus) are among the five most heavily-silted rivers in the world.
Now China has a massive project on its design table, one that may be a time
bomb.
The South-North Water Diversion will drain at least 48 billion cubic meters
of water from Yangze (Tib: Drichu) River to northern China along three
alternate routes.
Of the three, the southern part of the western route is certain to pit the
world's two most populous nations against each other.
The route envisages changing the course of Yalrung Tsangpo away from India
and Bangladesh, where it flows as Brahmaputra and is worshipped as the
lifeblood of millions of peasants.
Some experts maintain that there is no need to worry and that the project is
actually an engineering impossibility. But the scientists at the Chinese
Academy of Engineering Physics in Beijing said they could "certainly"
achieve this with peaceful nuclear explosions.
Moreover, the growing scarcity of water in northern China is becoming such a
sensitive issue that the Chinese leaders fear that unless something is done
it may one day become a cause of major uprisings. In other words, the
survival of the Communist Party leadership is at stake.
Also, one should also not forget that gargantuan engineering projects have
been the fetish of all rulers of China, who--starting from builders of the
Great Walls--have sought to immortalize themselves with mega projects of
unbelievable scales.
It is thus only a matter of time before the UN is forced to turn its
attention to Tibet.
Report sent by OoT, New York
Articles in this Issue:
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World Tibet Network NewsPublished by the Canada Tibet CommitteeMonday, June 14, 2004 |
2. Tibet Set to Become Next Flashpoint: Danielle Mitterrand
TibetNet
Monday, June 14, 2004
New York, June 11 - As neighboring countries find themselves drawn into
unwanted disputes over ever shrinking transboundary river systems, Tibet is
poised to become a major international flashpoint, said Mrs. Danielle
Mitterrand, Former First Lady of France, in a press statement issued on 8
June.
Speaking to reporters in Agen, southern France, Mrs. Mitterrand said that
war over oil is well on the way to becoming a thing of the past, but that
war over water is likely to break out in different parts of the world.
Mrs. Mitterrand is not the first person to raise a specter of war over
water. It is the subject of hundreds of scholarly papers and conferences, as
indeed it has been the worry of environmentalists over much of the past two
decades. A former senior president of the World Bank predicted famously that
the next World War will be over water.
Mrs. Mitterrand was referring to the silent tension brewing between China
and Tibet's southern neighbors, who view Beijing's hydrological development
in Tibet with mounting apprehension.
As Asia's principal watershed, Tibet is the source of the world's 10
greatest river systems. The total area irrigated by these rivers, from the
Machu basin in the east to the Senge Khabab in the west, covers 47 per cent
of the earth's human population.
Deforestation on the Tibetan plateau over the past four decades have already
resulted in extremely high sediment rates. The Machu (Huang Ho, or Yellow
River), the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra), the Drichu (Yangtze), and the Senge
Khabab (Indus) are among the five most heavily-silted rivers in the world.
Now China has a massive project on its design table, one that may be a time
bomb.
The South-North Water Diversion will drain at least 48 billion cubic meters
of water from Yangze (Tib: Drichu) River to northern China along three
alternate routes.
Of the three, the southern part of the western route is certain to pit the
world's two most populous nations against each other.
The route envisages changing the course of Yalrung Tsangpo away from India
and Bangladesh, where it flows as Brahmaputra and is worshipped as the
lifeblood of millions of peasants.
Some experts maintain that there is no need to worry and that the project is
actually an engineering impossibility. But the scientists at the Chinese
Academy of Engineering Physics in Beijing said they could "certainly"
achieve this with peaceful nuclear explosions.
Moreover, the growing scarcity of water in northern China is becoming such a
sensitive issue that the Chinese leaders fear that unless something is done
it may one day become a cause of major uprisings. In other words, the
survival of the Communist Party leadership is at stake.
Also, one should also not forget that gargantuan engineering projects have
been the fetish of all rulers of China, who--starting from builders of the
Great Walls--have sought to immortalize themselves with mega projects of
unbelievable scales.
It is thus only a matter of time before the UN is forced to turn its
attention to Tibet.
Report sent by OoT, New York
Articles in this Issue:
- Well worth holding onto Panchsheel ideals
- Tibet Set to Become Next Flashpoint: Danielle Mitterrand
- Kathmandu Lift Gyalyum Chenmo Gold Cup
- Tibetan community presents 'Dances From the Roof of the World'
- Peaceful Protest in Hungary and Poland
- ICT to Hold Fourth Tibetan Youth Leadership Program from June 14 to 19, 2004
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T: (514) 487-0665 F: (514) 487-7825 ctcoffice@tibet.ca
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