Bangladesh looks on as its upstream neighbours China and India kept up their efforts to build dams to unilaterally control the water flow in the trans-boundary river Brahmaputra, the lifeline of water supply during the dry season.
Accounting for 70 per cent of all natural water flow during the dry season, which covers winter and a part of pre-monsoon time, the Brahmaputra is essential for Bangladesh鈥檚 economic activities, which substantially depend on agriculture, sustaining millions of people fighting poverty tooth and nail.
China is actively pursuing the world鈥檚 single-largest hydroelectric project with plans to re-route 70 per cent of the Brahmaputra鈥檚 water to generate 60 GW of electricity, more than double the current installed power generation capacity of Bangladesh.
India is planning to dam the Siang River, a major tributary to the Brahmaputra, with nearly double the Chinese capacity to store water from the river to generate 11GW of electricity.
鈥楾he basic idea here is that the upstream countries will take away water by interrupting the Brahmaputra鈥檚 natural flow with promises to return it after meeting their own needs,鈥� said Md Khalequzzaman, who teaches geology at the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania.
Theoretically, Khaleq explained, the process of re-routing water by China meant building a dam, creating tunnels through hills and letting the water flow through gorges using its power to generate electricity.
International newspaper reports suggest that the re-routing could expand over a stretch of 50 km.
Little is officially known about the dams as upstream neighbours are reluctant to share reports of their projects鈥� feasibility studies or their environmental or disaster impact assessments.