Water, Water, Water: China & The Mekong River

Way back when World Press Review was still a print magazine to which I subscribed, I recall reading that a large number of China’s cities were experiencing water shortages and contamination. Since then, the Yangtze River has been successfully dammed by the Three Gorges Dam, and the Chinese continue to demonstrate their seriousness about the water situation and pollution, although their efforts are more notable for attempts at reduction of air pollution in the big cities, as well as reductions in the use of coal – if one believes their statistics.

Source: Wikipedia

But another river originating in their territory is being dammed, the Mekong River. This longish article in WaPo explores the impact of the dams in the process of erection, and reminds me that overpopulation will result in strategic moves with regard to acquisition and control of water resources by many national entities.

Will the American government realize this and come up with effective strategies? We already have epic squabbles over water resources right here on the American mainland, in both the Southeast and the Southwest, so I’m not sure exactly how we’d approach it. After all, there’s always the chance that efficient desalination might still be invented and commercialized, or some other solution to these problems, such as effective-at-scale decontamination technologies for those cities whose water supplies are poisoned by pollution or natural toxins, such as arsenic.

But if a technological solution isn’t invented and commercialized, and population continues to grow, what then? I’ll freely admit I’m not up on the latest technologies, but it’s worth noting that Lawfare maintains the topic Water Wars, with most of the posts concerning China, its neighbors, and the United States.

Minnesota is fortunate to usually have a surplus of clean water, letting us take long showers. Contrast that to a friend of mine who grew up in Rajasthan, a northern state of India, as I recall, who once contrasted how many buckets of water it took him to wash sufficiently in Pune, vs his home city, which might have been Jaipur.

We’re unlikely to be pushed around, as the Mississippi Rover originates here, and major dams don’t make a lot of sense. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the American Indian reservations have been deprived of water supplies, and certainly pipelines such as the Keystone are seen by many as constant dangers to rivers and lakes near to which they exist.