China's water diversion plan likely to affect B'desh rivers
Sunday, 13 September 2009
A Z M Anas
China's plan to siphon off billions of tonnes of water to its arid northern region is feared to deplete Bangladeshi rivers, jeopardising the deltaic nation's water security, environmental experts say.
They note that the US$62 billion South-to-North water diversion project would add to the litany of woes Bangladesh is already facing as a result of India's Ganges Barrage and the hotly debated Tipaimukh Dam.
China is pressing ahead with implementing the first phase of the project by 2014 as part of diverting 44.8 billion cubic metres of water to the Yellow River Basin, from the Yangtze River in southern China.
"It will have a potentially catastrophic impact on Bangladesh's rivers and access to water," said Peter Kim Streatfield, a top researcher at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).
Beijing last year endorsed the work of the project's central section by 2014, delaying the original schedule by four years. The other segments are expected to take decades to complete.
The north's main river, the Yellow River, has temporarily dried up in some places, and underground aquifers are badly depleted.
That prompted the Chinese government to revive the controvertial project, overlooking the interests of regional countries like India and Bangladesh.
Mr Streatfield said that Bangladesh should seek to influence the international community to dissuade China from implementing the potentially disastrous project and even ratify the relevant the UN Convention "as immediate as possible."
"If this had occurred, the country would be deprived of currently-available transboundary surface water," he added.
State minister for water resources Ramesh Chandra Sen on Saturday did not receive the phone call, seeking comments on the Dhaka's response to the Chinese water diversion plan. Nor was immediately available any Chinese embassy official in Dhaka.
But the country head of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Inun Nishat said opposition to the plan would not deliver any "tangible" results.
"As a lower riparian nation, we will have to live at their (upper riparian nations) mercy. And it will come through Indian rivers," he said.
India has already started negotiations with the Chinese authority on the proposed plan and Mr Nishat said Dhaka can be a party to the water dialogue.
Experts say the New Delhi administration is fretting about the looming river water shortage after the implementation of the project.
Mr Nishat, also a top water expert, urged the Bangladeshi water officials to accelerate the signing of the UN Convention on Non-navigational Use of Transboundary Rivers to help keep its major rivers from drying up.
The UN Convention on the Law of the Non-navigation Uses of International Watercourse was adopted in 1997 after 27 years of development.
The global convention sets out basic rights and obligations between states relating to the management of international watercourse.
A UN official in Dhaka said only 16 nations have ratified the treaty since its adoption, still requiring 19 more countries to help it enter into force.
The primary rules of international law is that states must utilize their international rivers in an "equitable and reasonable way and without causing harm to their neighbours."
Mr Nishat, however, believed that any water diversion plan must be based on the basin-line approach.
The ICDDR,B researcher estimated that the amount of water China is set to divert a year through the project is 10 times higher than Bangladesh's annual consumption.
China's plan to siphon off billions of tonnes of water to its arid northern region is feared to deplete Bangladeshi rivers, jeopardising the deltaic nation's water security, environmental experts say.
They note that the US$62 billion South-to-North water diversion project would add to the litany of woes Bangladesh is already facing as a result of India's Ganges Barrage and the hotly debated Tipaimukh Dam.
China is pressing ahead with implementing the first phase of the project by 2014 as part of diverting 44.8 billion cubic metres of water to the Yellow River Basin, from the Yangtze River in southern China.
"It will have a potentially catastrophic impact on Bangladesh's rivers and access to water," said Peter Kim Streatfield, a top researcher at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).
Beijing last year endorsed the work of the project's central section by 2014, delaying the original schedule by four years. The other segments are expected to take decades to complete.
The north's main river, the Yellow River, has temporarily dried up in some places, and underground aquifers are badly depleted.
That prompted the Chinese government to revive the controvertial project, overlooking the interests of regional countries like India and Bangladesh.
Mr Streatfield said that Bangladesh should seek to influence the international community to dissuade China from implementing the potentially disastrous project and even ratify the relevant the UN Convention "as immediate as possible."
"If this had occurred, the country would be deprived of currently-available transboundary surface water," he added.
State minister for water resources Ramesh Chandra Sen on Saturday did not receive the phone call, seeking comments on the Dhaka's response to the Chinese water diversion plan. Nor was immediately available any Chinese embassy official in Dhaka.
But the country head of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Inun Nishat said opposition to the plan would not deliver any "tangible" results.
"As a lower riparian nation, we will have to live at their (upper riparian nations) mercy. And it will come through Indian rivers," he said.
India has already started negotiations with the Chinese authority on the proposed plan and Mr Nishat said Dhaka can be a party to the water dialogue.
Experts say the New Delhi administration is fretting about the looming river water shortage after the implementation of the project.
Mr Nishat, also a top water expert, urged the Bangladeshi water officials to accelerate the signing of the UN Convention on Non-navigational Use of Transboundary Rivers to help keep its major rivers from drying up.
The UN Convention on the Law of the Non-navigation Uses of International Watercourse was adopted in 1997 after 27 years of development.
The global convention sets out basic rights and obligations between states relating to the management of international watercourse.
A UN official in Dhaka said only 16 nations have ratified the treaty since its adoption, still requiring 19 more countries to help it enter into force.
The primary rules of international law is that states must utilize their international rivers in an "equitable and reasonable way and without causing harm to their neighbours."
Mr Nishat, however, believed that any water diversion plan must be based on the basin-line approach.
The ICDDR,B researcher estimated that the amount of water China is set to divert a year through the project is 10 times higher than Bangladesh's annual consumption.