Water

choi

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(1) Edward Wong, To Slake Thirst of North, China Looks South; Plans for diverting 6 trillion gallons of water a yearn. New York Times, June 2, 2011 (title in print).
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/world/asia/02water.html?scp=1&sq=china%20yellow&st=cse

"Some Chinese scientists say the diversion could destroy the ecology of the southern rivers, making them as useless as the Yellow River. The government has neglected to do proper impact studies, they say. There are precedents in the United States. Lakes in California were damaged and destroyed when the Owens River was diverted in the early 20th century to build Los Angeles.

"midlevel officials in water-scarce Hebei Province are frustrated that four reservoirs in their region have sent more than 775 million cubic meters, or 205 billion gallons, of water to Beijing since September 2008 in an 'emergency' supplement to the middle route" of water diversion.

"Overseers of the eastern route, which is being built alongside an ancient waterway for barges called the Grand Canal, have found that the drinking water to be brought to Tianjin from the Yangtze is so polluted that 426 sewage treatment plants have to be built; water pollution control on the route takes up 44 percent of the $5 billion investment, according to Xinhua

"Officials in Tianjin are so skeptical of the eastern route’s ability to deliver drinkable water that they are looking at desalinization as an alternative.

"At the start of the route, the water level of the Danjiangkou Reservoir on the Han River has been raised 43 feet to 558 feet so that the water can flow downhill to Beijing.

"The demands of the north will not abate. Migration from rural areas means Beijing’s population is growing by one million every two years

"The planning for Beijing’s growth up to 2020 by the State Council already assumes the water diversion will work * * * City planners see a Beijing full of golf courses, swimming pools and nearby ski slopes — the model set by the West.

Note:
(a) Danjiangkou Reservoir
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danjiangkou_Reservoir
(丹江口水库; a multi-purpose reservoir in Xichuan County, Henan and Danjiangkou City, Hubei province; onstructed in 1958, and at the time was one [of] the largest reservoirs in Asia; Primary inflows 丹江; Primary outflows 汉江 (historically 汉水) )
(b) Owens River
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owens_River
(drains through the Owens Valley; terminates at Owens Lake; its flow is greatly diminished by diversion into the Los Angeles Aqueduct since 1913. It is a major example and cause in the long-running California Water Wars)
(c) If one reads the quotations, probably there is no need to read the report itself. But do not forget to see the slide show.

(2) Lester R Brown, When the Nile Runs Dry; Foreign land grabs endanger Egypt's food supply. New York Times, June 2, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/opinion/02Brown.html?scp=1&sq=china%20lester%20&st=cse


Quote:

"Affluent countries like Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China and India have descended on fertile plains across the African continent, acquiring huge tracts of land to produce wheat, rice and corn for consumption back home. * * * And in countries like Congo and Zambia, China is acquiring land for biofuel production.

"Since rainfall in Egypt is negligible to nonexistent, its agriculture is totally dependent on the Nile.

"The Nile Waters Agreement, which Egypt and Sudan signed in 1959, gave Egypt 75 percent of the river’s flow, 25 percent to Sudan and none to Ethiopia. * * * Ethiopia — never enamored of the agreement — has announced plans to build a huge hydroelectric dam on its branch of the Nile that would reduce the water flow to Egypt even more.

My comment:
(a) "It [Ethiopia] was one of only four African members of the League of Nations. After a brief period of Italian occupation, Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations."
Ethiopia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia
(b) Two years ago an Ethiopian told me about Ethiopia's discontent with teh 1959 agreement, threatening to uniterally build dams at upstream of Niles, which is totally comport with international law. Egypt threatened war in return.



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