Tibetan Women call for China to take care of transboundary water allocations (21 Nov 2013)

Pressure China to enter into appropriate water-sharing agreements 19th Oct 2013 Women’s Environment and Development Desk Tibetan Women’s Association Central Executive Committee Dharamshala, 176219, India To: Environment Ministers of the Governments of Bhutan, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam cc Mrs Irina Bokuva, Director General, UNESCO Your Excellencies, With an increasing number of Chinese hydropower projects and water-diversion projects in Tibet, as well as water pollution from mining in Tibet, it is certain that Tibet and its ten downstream nations will face great challenges in the coming years. Therefore, we are writing to share our grave concerns about the impact of China’s policies 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. Over the last sixty years, China’s policies in Tibet have led to major environmental degradation. This includes poisoned river and groundwater through unregulated mining, drying up of wetlands and shrinking of lakes, and disrupting the fragile ecosystem at the headwaters of these rivers. This has exacerbated a serious situation, whereby meltdown from Himalayan glaciers has caused chronic flooding downstream from Tibet, including your countries. Along with water security, we must consider the importance of food security also. For thousands of years, those in downstream nations have had access to the free flow of rivers from Tibet, bringing not only water for irrigation but rich nutrients for growing crops. To maintain food security in agriculture in the major deltas of South Asia and Southeast Asia, there must be water-sharing treaties in place to allow for free flow of water on these rivers. Global climate change is warming the Tibetan Plateau at twice the rate of the rest of the world, and the impact of this on Asia’s water supplies is exacerbated by China’s extensive mega-dam-building programme intended to harness hydropower and divert water to mainland China. This programme threatens the safety, security, and sustainable livelihoods of more than one billion people living downstream. There must be a moratorium on China’s mega-dam building on Tibet’s rivers, which are shared by multiple nations, to prevent disastrous impact downstream. By claiming authority over the Water Tower of Asia, China is wielding considerable power over its neighboring countries, yet it has not signed a single water sharing agreement. Following on from the initiatives of the UN International Decade for Action ‘Water For Life’ (2005-2015) and the UN International Year of Water Cooperation (2013), we urge all ten downstream nations to act now to secure your future water supplies and bring China to the negotiating table to sign appropriate international transboundary water-sharing agreements. Yours faithfully, Ms Dorji Kyi Women’s Environment and Development Officer Tibetan Women’s Association http://tibetanwomen.org/