China's approach to water with lower riparian countries in South Asia threatens region: Report
The report in Bangladesh-based daily further highlighted that Chinese investments in water-based resources is leading to adverse impact on the environment, displacement of local people and huge debt to countries.
The combination of territory grabbing and water resource hegemony by China is a threat that all countries in South and South East Asia face and their respective security environments
Although, the planet is covered with 70 per cent water, but only 2.5 per cent of this is fresh water, which has led to many experts predicting the next theatre of war as the conflict over water.
This is precisely why nations have begun to preserve fresh water and, in some cases, have gone beyond to become global water hegemons, as they grow and develop. One example in the list is China.
Being a water-stressed country, Beijing made huge investments in water-based resources globally.
However, apart from the geo-political implications, China's water hegemony has had an adverse impact on the environment, and well-being of local populations and pushed nations into debt traps due to resource-intensive investments in dam/hydroelectric projects.
According to the Daily Asian Age report, China is said to have constructed a whopping 308 dams in 70 countries on various rivers (Tibet Policy Institute, September 23, 2016).
The recent estimates of China's dam construction worldwide show that these dams generate a total of 81 GW of power.
