This years WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
slogan is
Think.Eat.Save.
It
is said to be an anti-food waste and food loss campaign. Because
every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is
wasted. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and
more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.
At the same time, the planet is struggling to
provide us with enough resources to sustain its 7 billion people (growing to 9
billion by 2050). Food waste is an enormous drain on natural resources and a
contributor to negative environmental impacts.The global food production
occupies 25% of all habitable land and is responsible for 70% of fresh water
consumption, 80% of deforestation, and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is
the largest single driver of biodiversity loss and land-use change.(Source:
http://www.unep.org/wed/theme/) While blaming agriculture for
many environmental ills the FAO does not take into account the nature of food
production. Food produced for marketwould have different impact that food
produced for self consumption. All those ills and inefficiencies enumerated by
FAO are the ills generated by corporate houses in the food processing and
agricultural sector.
Do these corporate houses permit common people
food choices? In the present day market oriented system where one in every
seven persons is sleeping hungry at night. Where on the one hand food grains
decay in godown and on the other people die of starvation where is the choice
of eating organic or gm foods?
If the gm
foods are harmful for health and environment than why force the farmers to grow
them? Actually before coming to consumption of food we have to focus on growing
of food. To grow food land and water is required. We know like the 19
th
century gold- rush today the whole world is witnessing land rush.
Corporate houses are leaving no stones
unturned to get land for cash crop farming ,or for mining, real estate business
or for other commercial purposes.
As far
as water is concerned the less said the better. Most of the rivers are either
drying or are polluted. The underground water table is rapidly going down and
whatever is left is polluted. Rivers are being sold to private parties. With
the unprecedented developments in the field of technology, which, in turn is
expanding the size and reach of the corporate giants to all nooks and corners of
the globe.
The energy needs of these
giants have become unfathomable and
they
are now tapping the unexplored sources of water. One of such untapped sources is
the water of Himalayan rivers. The first step was to reassess the Himalayan
potential for hydro-power. It
has been
‘reassessed’ at 500,000 MWe [Megawatt of installed electricity generation
capacity. The reassessed country-wise potential is:
Pakistan: 41,722 MW, India 108,143
MW;
Nepal 83,000 MW; and Bhutan 16,000
MW.
Tibet
250,000 MWe.
Because
Tibet is part of
China the latter wants to hurriedly
tap this energy to quench the un-quenchable energy thirst of its mega
industrial houses .
India
is also no exception. She has also made elaborate plans to harness hydraulic
energy potential of the Himalayan Rivers. In the process these governments have
not cared to comprehend the irreparable damage would be caused to the Himalayan
ecology including
Tibet.
(Source
http://chimalaya.org/2013/05/20/the-himalayas-once-moaning-now-groaning/)
All the Himalayan rivers originate from glaciers. Arun
Srivastava writes that the Himalayan glaciers serve as world’s second largest
heat sink after the Antarctic and moderate global climate. The 18,065 glaciers
spread over nearly 35,000 square kilometers hold about 3,735 cubic kilometers
of ice mass making it world’s second largest glacier resource. He quotes Yao
Tandong, Liu Shiyan, Pu Jianchen, Shen Yongping and Lu Anxin study published
in, Science in China, 2004
and writes that 95% of the statistical glaciers were receding and that water
resources in the Himalayas declining. (Ibid)
While the dams on Indian side of Himalaya affect the Indian people, damming
rivers in Tibet adversely
affects the people of south Asia and of South East Asia including Vietnam. Arun
Srivastava, says, “ power projects are stealing water, life line for 30 million
mountain folks and 3 billion in the Himalayan-water-dependent nations, as far
as Vietnam.”(
Ibid)
China's has been taking unilateral decision to
construct dams and river diversion projects in Tibet. Since 1989, China has been
planning to develop south-north water diversion projects partly driven by
internal economic compulsions and partly by the desire to acquire a dominant
external position. Dams in Tibet
are matter of concern for all the Tibetans residing in Tibet, or outside Tibet. Because the rivers and the
lakes China
plans to use for energy generation are sacred for them. Secondly, Tibetan land
is delicate and it cannot absorb the damming, river water diversion projects,
mining and transportation, industrial and other such activities, which would
lead to receding of glaciers in Tibet
and in the Himalayas. Unfortunately, some of
these activities might invite an eco-disaster resulting in the meltdown of
Himalayan glaciers, further resulting in the drying of rivers.
The Tibetan plateau is the world’s
largest water reservoir. Asia’s 10 major river systems including the Indus,
Sutlej, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween and
Mekong
originate here. Of the world’s 6.92 billion people, it is the lifeline for
nearly two billion (29%) in South Asia — from
Afghanistan
to the Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra basin and in
Southeast
Asia. The lower riparian states have failed to restrain
China from
unilateral decisions about harvestingTibetan water resources. It is pertinent
to note that
China
has already built a barrage on the
Sutlej. It
started construction work to divert the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) in
Tibet in
November 2010. Chinese policy of using Tibetan water resources to generate
electricity would
affect
Nepal too because some of
Nepal’s major rivers originate in
Tibet before finally merging into the
Ganga. Of them, the most important is Karnali (507 km),
Nepal’s
longest river. Parts of
Nepal’s
other major tributary systems also originate in
Tibet. Similarly, the major
tributaries of the Kosi, like the Sun Koshi/Bhote Koshi, the Tama Koshi and
Arun originate in
Tibet.
Any diversion of waters from Nepalese rivers
originating in
Tibet would
directly affect the
Ganga’s flow.
Vasudeva
feels that by controlling
Tibetan natural resourcesTibet China could dominate the Himalayan piedmont and
by doing so it could even threaten the Indian subcontinent and thereby further
threaten all of Southeast Asia and by extension all of Asia.
He writes that
because of this reason China has not signed any bilateral treaty in
regard to the utilisation of water resources with any of its neighbours and has
also not signed the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses
of International Waterways. ( Source: PK Vasudeva ,Tibetan waters crucial for
India's
future, Nov 15, 2011, 10:15 IST | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/1612620/comment-tibetan-waters-crucial-for-indias-future)
In May 1997, when the United Nations General Assembly
adopted a Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International
Watercourses, China was one
of three countries that voted against it, with Turkey
and Burundi.
India
abstained from the vote.
The rather mild
Convention 'aimed at guiding States in negotiating agreements on specific
watercourses.'
(Source:http://www.rediff.com/news/special/chinas-dams-on-brahmaputra-can-be-dangerous-business/20130207.htm
The people and governments all the
states of Indian sub- continent, environmentalists, social activists are quite
alarmed to learn about Chinese water harvesting projects. There is a strong anti-dam lobby both in China and India. Any proposal for fresh dam in any of Chinese
rivers receives world wide publicity. Immediately these groups come out with data
and various kind of information to show the ill- effects of mega dams on
environment , biodiversity, and on the local inhabitants. For example, 263
international NGOs opposed China’s
proposals to construct dams on the Mekong
River. They
criticized China
for using the water resources in Tibet
as a political tool and demanded a moratorium on the lower Mekong dams for at
least 10 years.( Source: PK Vasudeva ,Tibetan waters crucial for India's
future
Tuesday, Nov 15, 2011, 10:15 IST | Agency: DNA
China's
construction of dams also raises the prospect of a race with
India to develop hydropower along south
Asia's most important river. For example, Jairam Ramesh,
the then Indian environment minister, told the Guardian that in order to
strengthen our negotiating position with China India needed to be more
aggressive in pushing ahead hydro projects on the Brahmaputra [Source: Jonathan
Wattsm The Guardian, May 24, 2010qouted by Jeffrey Hays
in Facts and Details, 2008,
http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=2276&catid=13)
To establish its “lower riparian right” and to create a strong bargaining
position to detract China from building mega hydrological projects on the upper
reaches of the river
Indian Government has
been desperately trying to push the Arunachal Pradesh Government to expedite
the development of storage hydroelectric projects on the Brahmaputra.
It was reported in the press that efforts were
on to get the State to allot at least one storage hydroelectric project in each
of the sub-basins of Siang, Lohit and Subhansiri rivers. The NTPC Ltd has been asked
to prepare a feasibility study for a proposed 9,750-MW Siang Upper
hydroelectric project. The main hurdle is the Arunachal Pradesh Government’s
stand as far as possible to avoid storage projects involving big dams. However,
the Ministry of Power has been trying hard to convince the Arunachal Government
on the need for storage projects. Strategic analysts also want
India to go ahead with hydroelectric project
constructions in Brahmaputra's major tributaries to counter
China's similar
move. They said that the hydroelectric dams on
Brahmaputra
tributaries should be looked as strategic projects. One of them Brahma
Chellaney, says that, “If
India
harnesses the Brahmaputra in Arunachal through the proposed projects, it will
strengthen its case against
China's
building of a mega-dam at Metog. But, it will have to do it before
China
does its project. Under the doctrine of prior appropriation, a priority right
falls on the first user of river waters,”. (Soure:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/chinas-plan-for-mega-dam-forces-govt-to-fast-track-hydel-projects-on-brahmaputra/article2406778.ece)
While the governments and the
experts are thinking about the big issues the local people are worried about
the minor problems of existence.(Are’nt the so called big issues dependent on
the minor question of safety and security of existence.) Without ensuring the
safety and security of existence of the Himalaya, the Himalayan rivers, the
biodiversity found there, and the people residing there any talk about protecting
India’s strategic interest could be mere academic exercise. Can we really
ensure India’s safety and
security by competing with China
in constructing mega dams? Or are we merely playing in the hands of big dam lobby
as China
is doing?
Contrary to the approach adopted by
the government the people of Arunachal Pradesh are apprehensive about the
dam-building spree on both sides of the LAC. Actually over 100 large and small
hydroelectric projects were being planned in almost all the tributaries of Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh. Of these 100, 13 are planned in Tawang. Tawang is the birthplace of VIth Dalai Lama. People
of Tawang, who predominantly belong to Monpa tribe, have opposed the
hydroelectric project as they claimed many of the projects were located in
Buddhist sacred sites. Incidentally, Tibetans have similar complaint against
the Chinese government in Tibet.
(Source: Race for dams may trigger water disputes between India, China - Times Of India
On 10 September, 2010, 51 NGOs from
north east India sent a Memorandum to the Indian and the Chinese Prime
Ministers demanding to ‘let the Yarlung
Sangpo/Siang River Run Free.’This was possible only by stopping dams on Yarlung
Sangpo/Siang.
The Memorandum read:
Several
communities in this stretch of river identify it by several names and attaches
spiritual, cultural and economic importance to Nature, and they are first users
and in fact the defender and protector of the river and its ecosystem. We fear
that this being not only one of the finest rivers but also the finest
ecosystems on earth, the communities surviving on this ecosystem will be
destroyed by the politics of water and energy and the game of one-upmanship of
these great nations.
To the Government of India
For
a mere 8 – 10 % growth we cannot allow thousands of people to be displaced from
their ancestral villages, nor can we allow millions of trees, of medicinal
plants, of numerous other fauna and flora to be submerged or perish due to lack
of water. We cannot allow thousands of fisherfolks and farmers to suffer for
lack of water or live in constant fear of a dam break. We cannot facilitate the
destruction of our bio-diversity for the sake of India’s GDP.
India
is not only making efforts to building dams in Siang river but is preparing to
built more than 100 mega dams in other rivers of the Northeast. Apart from the
numerous problems associated with Dams, building dams on the Siang has serious
implications. We have witnessed painful conflict between India and China in the sixties and we do not
want to see the conflict continue or escalate as ultimately it is the people
suffer (like those who live in Arunachal, in particular). We see that there is
already an additional conflict brewing due to the dams proposed both by China and India. For this reason both the
country must refrain from building any dams in the whole stretch of this river.
This will help build peace and trust between the two countries. Building dams
on Siang or in Yarlung Sangpo will therefore be considered as seeking conflict.
To the Government of China:
Any blocking of the river either by way of building
any kind of dams or by simply diverting it will have irreparable and
devastating impact on the ecosystems and the peoples way of life in Tibet,
Arunachal Pradesh and Assam and also in the lower reaches of Bangladesh.We also
fear that India’s efforts to build many dams (including the ones in Lohit and
Subansiri rivers) is a way to pre-empt any Chinese dam upstream using the
highly illogical view of stopping dams in upstream by building dams in the
lower portion of the river. Nor can China build dams because of the
unfounded logic that the country downstream is not using its water. Both the
logic is problematic for the very fact that this river, its water and its
ecosystem are already being used by the people settled along these rivers for
generations.
Proposals:
1. Stop all existing and proposed dam
construction activities on Siang River both in China
and India.
2. Collectively agree to hold these river(s)
as Heritage Rivers for all future generations to come.
The people are concerned because
they have suffered flash floods caused by dam break in Tibet. On Jul
10, 2000, a Chinese official confirmed that dam breach in Tibet
caused floods that wreaked havoc in northeastern India, claiming 30 lives and leaving
more than 100 missing. Indian officials also
admitted that they had seen images from a satellite that showed flash floods
hit the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh two weeks ago after a Chinese dam on
the Tsangpo river was breached. The Arunachal Pradesh government urged the
Indian Prime Minister and home minister to take up the matter with their
Chinese counterparts. State Minister of
Information and Public Relations Takam Sanjay told AFP that "Floods of
this magnitude were never ever recorded in our history," and there could
be artificial reasons for the river Siang to flood the hills. More than 50,000
people in five districts of Arunachal Pradesh were left homeless by the floods,
and several parts of the state were remained
cut off from the rest of the country for a considerable period of time. The
death toll was estimated to be 30.The estimated loss of property was more than
one billion rupees (22.9 million dollars).
An official of China's Water Resources Department of the Tibet
Autonomous Region government in Lhasa
told AFP the 60 meters high and 2.5 kilometers wide dam was actually not an
artificial dam, but a natural one, formed by a major landslide that occurred on
April 9, 2000. he added "That landslide, the biggest ever seen
in Asia and the third biggest in the world,
created a dam in a matter of eight minutes." He said the Tibet government spent over 60
million yuan (7.2 million dollars) to canalize the river, but couldn't prevent
the dam from collapsing recently. The official however, declined to be
identified. (Source:Chinese Official
Confirms a China Dam Break
Caused India
Floods . Reuters, July 10, 2000, Also Indian Express , JULY 11, 2000.)
Unfortunately, both the Chinese and
the Indian governments are least sensitive to people’s concerns. Ignoring all
the protests and appeals, the Chinese government on Feb 5, 2013, informed her plan to build three new dams on
the Brahmaputra river. China claimed that the new dams on the Yarlung
Tsangpo would not have any impact on the flow of water to downstream areas in India. Because the run-of-the-river hydropower
projects on the river would not come in the way of the flood control and
disaster reduction efforts in the lower reaches and would not disturb the
ecological balance.
China
has since 2010 been building a 510 MW hydropower project on the Yarlung Tsangpo
at Zangmu in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The proposed new projects at Dagu and
Jiacha will have installed generation capacity of 640 MW and 320 MW
respectively. The proposed capacity of the project at Jiexu has not yet been
made public. (Source: China
apprises India of dam plans
on Brahmaputra
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/310177/china-apprises-india-dam-plans.html)
However, the peoples protests continue. On 22 March 2013,
Ms Dhardon Sharling, Co Chair, on behalf of The
International Tibet Network Secretariat, Tibetan Women’s Association and Tibet
Justice Centre
Wrote to the Environment Ministers of the Governments of India, Pakistan,
Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan,
Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma,
Thailand and Vietnam.
cc Mrs Irina Bokuva,
Director General, UNESCO
IN this letter concerns were expressed about the impact of
China’s policies – especially its dam-building programme – on Asia’s regional
water security, and to urge your government to join forces with other
downstream nations to pressure China to enter into appropriate water-sharing
agreements.These Ministers were urged to join hands and bring China to the
negotiating table to sign appropriate regional and international water-sharing
agreements.(Source: WTN-L World Tibet Network News)
Anupam Nath , Activists hold
placards against the construction of big dams as they protest… (/AP )
Plans by China
to build three dams in Tibet
have rung alarm bells in next-door India,
where fears are rising that the northern nation’s thirst for power and water
will one day affect the flow of the mighty Brahmaputra River,
a lifeline for tens of millions of people. How
these dams deprive the people of their basic needs of life is explained
by Brahma Chellaney. He says that Chinese dams on the Brahmaputra pose a
serious long-term threat to the livelihoods of farmers, not only in India but even more so farther downstream in Bangladesh. He
elaborates by saying that Chinese dam-building follows a well-established
pattern that starts with small dams on a river’s upper reaches and eventually
moves to mega-dams downstream. There are 12 small dams on the Brahmaputra’s
upper reaches and tributaries and one medium-size dam under construction on the
river. He predicts that the next step would
be larger dams in spots where the river picks up huge amounts of water and
momentum nearer the Indian border.Those dams could not only affect water flows
but also remove nutrient-rich silt that helps nourish agriculture downstream.
Indian government does not seem to be worried. A government official who spoke
on the condition of anonymity said
That New Delhi
is not overly concerned. He felt as a rising global power, China has
shrinking incentive to unilaterally dam rivers to its neighbors’ disadvantage.
Arvind Subramanian of the Peterson Institute for
International Economics in Washington said
tensions could rise as climate change melts the Himalayan glaciers and changes
the patterns of water distribution in Asia.
The risk is that China then takes a larger share of diminished rivers,
magnifying the effects of climate change on downstream nations such as
India.And because the upstream power also has military, strategic and economic
advantages, many observers say India has minimal bargaining power.“India has very little leverage over China, and this is just one more lever that China is
acquiring,” said Harsh Pant of the defense studies department at King’s College
London.
Source: Simon Denyer,Chinese dams in Tibet raise hackles in India
Pressure China
to enter into appropriate water-sharing agreements, February 07, 2013)
On February 16, 2013,electronic
media reported thatArunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki plans to ask the
central government to look into China
constructing three hydropower projects on the Brahmaputra river in Tibet. He was much concerned
because he was not certain about the size of these dams. Assam
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had also requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
take up with China the matter
regarding the construction of the three dams on the Brahmaputra.
Claude Arpi, feels that the solution is definitively not
building more dams in Arunachal Pradesh.He gives two examples to show how these
dams are security threats. One is thecollapse of the Malpasset dam in France on
December 2, 1959. He writes
Shortly after 9 pm, the entire dam
wall broke open, with only a few blocks remaining on the right bank. The breach
created a massive wave -- 40 metres high -- which moved at a speed of 70 km per
hour. It destroyed two small villages, Malpasset and Bozon, the highway
construction site nearby and 20 minutes later reached the town of Frjus. The wave was still
three metres high. Various small roads and railroad tracks were destroyed on
the way and the western half of Frjus town was flooded.
The tragedy claimed the lives of 423 people.
According to a French television documentary, the collapse
of the Malpasset dam could have been an act of terrorism by Algeria's
National Liberation Front. Apri feels the dam construction should also be
viewed in the light of tense India
China
relations.
The seismology of the area should also be considered.
Recently, a study by the Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore revealed for the first time that in 1255 and 1934, two great earthquakes
ruptured the surface of the earth in the Himalayas.Quakes also occurred in
1897, 1905, 1934 and 1950, with magnitudes between 7.8 and 8.9 on the Richter
Scale, and caused tremendous damage.Professor Paul Tapponnier of the French
Academy of Sciences, discovered that the 1934 earthquake did rupture the
surface of the earth, damaging the ground across an area of more than 150 km,
in the Himalayas.Building dams in these areas is a dangerous business.
(Source: Claude Arpi,
China's dams on Brahmaputra can be dangerous business
February 07, 2013 22:00 IST Rediff.com)
In view of flood devastations in Uttarakhand Himalaya dam
construction projects should be thoroughly reviewed in the Himalayan region.
