September 24 2010
4:50
Shared rivers that run through Asia are being argued over. The source of water is shared in countries and signed agreements over water regulations are scarce which results tension in Israel, India and Pakistan. Millions of people are supplied water from the Tibetan plateau which has slowed in recent years due to exploitation of resources. The damage to the Tibetan plateau ecosystem impacted the water flow to the rivers and is now at the lowest in history. Rapid growth is the culprit and it is still continuing. In China the Han communists in charge implement their plans for rapid growth by mining the plateau for jade and gold, native flora, and building hydraulic power stations. Many dams are planned to be built along with more hydraulic power stations. The native herdsmen that inhabit this land are then forced to settle their cattle in one place instead of rotating to new parts of land. This causes a lot of harm to the environment because the grasses are eaten, then the roots, and the land becomes barren and is not given enough time to recover. This results in loss of wetlands, grassland degradation, and glaciers retracting. China believes that the loss of water is simply that of natural causes and has nothing to do with the dams they have placed. In Thailand there were droughts that resulted in ships being stranded but because of the dependence on China economically they did not call them out as the one to blame. The reservoirs on the river evaporate and that decreases the flow downstream. It is easy to see that it is not natural factors but that it is human actions that are resulting in the decrease of the water resource.
Since the countries that share these rivers do not have any type of regulated agreements it is very likely that this will cause a great amount of tension. China is responsible for causing most of the damage by depleting the land of natural resources at a rapid rate as well as constructing a great number of dams along a major river. According to China though they are not causing any harm and think that the drought is simply that of a natural occurrence. By them not seeing that they are responsible it is impossible for any changes to be made that could help the situation. In Thailand they suffered from a drought when the river ran dry but China did not suffer any damage. Thailand is downstream so whatever actions China takes on the River will impact Thailand, who is dependent on China. When the water supply becomes scarce there is an increased level of tension between these bordering countries. Since all the communities are interconnected there needs to be an agreement made that protects the source of water.
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