For Nepal? Hardly. There are hundreds of rivers and riverines born WITHIN Nepal from the mountains.

For India? A concern for a short stretch in the southernmost regions close to Bangladesh. In the North-East Brahmaputra is actually a curse that floods along with the some of the highest rainfalls on the earth. Control further up may actually ease some flooding. Overall Brahmaputra is not a major concern for Indian agriculture.

For Bangladesh? The most impact. Like in Nort-East, if some water is diverted by the chinese it may acutally help prevent disasterous flooding for the Bangladeshis, but if too much is diverted then their agricultural areas will start suffering. Unlike Indian North-East, Bangladesh is thickly populated and will be put under lot of population strain. So much for becomming a Pearl in China's "String of Pearls"

How can a country at the upstream of a river divert the flow of water without consulting the countries at the down stream? China should consult both India & Bangladesh, come to a mutual agreement & then only proceed on its plans.

This is  only a beginning. Many such events will take place though out the world. The countries with the power of  Nuclear missiles are going to black mail those which are non nuclear, and grab all the natural resources meant for others.

Every country should think of such possible threats and be ready with proper strategies to face them.

Hope things will change to better.

Redshirt

"How can a country at the upstream of a river divert the flow of water without consulting the countries at the down stream? China should consult both India & Bangladesh, come to a mutual agreement & then only proceed on its plans"

Well, it's already happened to the Mekong River, which feeds Laos and Vietnam. China assumes that everyone must sacrifice to contribute to China's growth and development because China is "heaven" (but looks and smells like hell).

There won't be any mutual agreements, and China won't abide by them anyway.  Just a long string of "consultations" and meetings while the dams are being built.

Greedy China.

May be the success at smaller level with Mekong River might have encouraged China to venture in to this big one. The world community or UN should have objecrted in the beginning of this incident itself. Now the result.

There was a saying " If injustice is being done to your neighbour, and if you keep quite, be ready, next  is your turn". It perfectly fits all for this,

Now is there any way out for India & Bangaldesh for stopping the diversion of water. What are the options available for them now. Who should be brought in to avert this.

Will any one please focus on this.

Red Shirt

Under a "China" thread, Francois posed a question about water wars, this is where one will shape up, but ASEAN won't act until its too late, and ASEAN couldn't do much except blow chinese dams and risk a pummeling on land.

Even thought it may seem that China has a lot of control over water content of the Brahmaputra, seeing its origins in Tibetan Plateau...

http://www.history.upenn.edu/coursepages/hist086/material/Ganga-Brahmaputra.gif">

... it is completely misleading. Check out this map:

http://www.brahmaputra.de/Neue_Dateien/Brahmaputra.jpg">


As you can see, Brahmaputra - as a significant water carrier - is really born in Indian Arunachal Pradesh. The river is the widest and the most "water giving" only in India and Bangladesh. Majority of its water comes from tropical rains as clouds clash against the Himalayas rather than melting snow (as in Mekong and Chinese rivers). That much is basic geography.

Chinese trying to siphoning off some water in their territory would not create a water shortage in these often flooded Indian  region. Not at least until the heavily populated Bangladesh delta.

  Good posting Mr. olive greens. You have taken trouble to explain the reality situation through Geographical maps.It is very clear to understand.   Mr. Nanheyangrouchuan's info on history of chinese waer wars is new for me. Thanks to both of you.

Red Shirt

And now you can see why China is suddenly mentioning that Uttar Paradesh is an integral part of China since "ancient times".

China must be getting desperate for fresh water...prepare yourselves.  Water means survival, no water means death, so what does a person or country have to lose by going to war for drinking water?

Prepare yourselves.  Might not be a bad time to establish a joint US/Indian army and airforce joint operations training center in that province.

iht.com/articles/2006/11/18/asia/web.1118china.php