Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Water Wars
So many conflicts worldwide have their roots in resource competition.
"[T]he study concludes that north-western India and the neighbouring Pakistani region, the breadbaskets of both countries, are drying out - unless the two nations act soon, they will trade blows over water, not land. ...Skirmishes over water are becoming a regular feature in both areas. In India, two lower riparian states, Punjab and Haryana, with nearly 20m acres of cultivable land, face a crunch over water in the next five to 10 years. ...In Pakistan, the situation is worse. The flow of river water is dropping precipitately, at nearly 7% a year. The country's vast irrigation network is silting up and agricultural output will reach a crisis by 2010, the report says, with two key commodities - food grain and cotton - badly hit. ... A looming water war was foreseen by a 'bright and ambitious' Pakistani brigadier on a year-long course in 1990 at London's Royal College of Defence Studies. In his paper, the officer said that the distribution of Indus rivers contained the 'germs of a future conflict'. After a decade and a military coup, that soldier became the leader of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf."
Rivers Run Through It
More blogs about politics.
