PARIS: With half the world experiencing water shortage for no less than a part of the 12 months, the large dams being constructed by some nations to spice up their energy provides whereas their neighbours go parched are a rising supply of potential battle.

Forward of a UN convention in New York on world entry to water, AFP appears at 5 mega-projects with very totally different penalties, relying on whether or not you reside upstream or downstream.

MEGA-DAM ON THE NILE

The waters of Africa’s longest river, the Nile, are on the centre of a decade-long dispute between Ethiopia — the place the Nile’s largest tributary, the Blue Nile, rises — and its downstream neighbours Sudan and Egypt.

In 2011, Addis Ababa launched a $4.2 billion hydroelectric challenge on the river, which it sees as important to lighting up rural Ethiopia.

Sudan and Egypt, nonetheless, see the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as a menace to their water provides — Egypt alone depends on the Nile for about 97 p.c of its irrigation and ingesting water.

Ethiopia has insisted the dam won’t disturb the stream of water and turned on the primary turbine in February 2020.

IRAQI, SYRIAN THIRST

Lengthy used to drilling for oil, war-scarred Iraq is now digging ever deeper for water as a frenzy of dam-building, primarily in Turkey, sucks water out of the area’s two nice rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates.

Turkey launched the development of a big complicated of dams and hydroelectric crops throughout the southeast within the Eighties.

In 1990 it accomplished the large Ataturk Dam on the Euphrates River, simply 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Syria’s border.

Extra not too long ago, in 2019, the traditional city of Hasankeyf on the Tigris was submerged to make method for the huge Ilisu Dam.

Iraq and Syria say Turkey’s dam-building has resulted in a drastic discount of the water flowing via their lands.

Baghdad recurrently asks Ankara to launch extra water to counter drought, however Turkey’s ambassador to Iraq, Ali Riza Guney, ruffled feathers final July when he stated, “water is essentially wasted in Iraq”.

Syria’s Kurds in the meantime have accused their arch-foe Turkey of weaponising the Euphrates, accusing it of intentionally holding again water to spark a drought, which Ankara denies.

CHINA’S MEKONG DAM SPREE

China is a frenetic dam builder, setting up 50,000 dams within the Yangtze basin up to now 70 years — together with the notorious Three Gorges.

However it’s China’s tasks on the Mekong River, which rises in China and twists south via Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, that the majority alarm its neighbours.

The Mekong feeds greater than 60 million individuals via its basin and tributaries.

Washington has blamed China’s actions for inflicting extreme droughts in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In 2019, the US monitor Eyes on Earth revealed satellite tv for pc imagery displaying the dams in China holding “above-average pure stream”.

Beijing insists its reservoirs assist to keep up the steadiness of the river, by storing water within the wet season and releasing it within the dry season.

WATER RIVALRY IN KASHMIR

The Indus River is likely one of the longest on the Asian continent, reducing via ultra-sensitive borders within the area, together with the demarcation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan in Kashmir.

The 1960 Indus Water Treaty theoretically shares out water between the 2 nations however has been fraught with disputes.

Pakistan has lengthy feared that India, which sits upstream, may limit its entry, adversely affecting its agriculture. And India has threatened to take action from time to time.

In an indication of the tensions, the arch-rivals have constructed duelling energy crops alongside the banks of the Kishanganga River, which flows into an Indus tributary.

TENSIONS ON RIO PARANA

The Itaipu hydroelectric plant, located on the Parana River on the Brazil-Paraguay border, has typically been the supply of tensions between the 2 co-owner nations.

One of many two hydroelectricity crops that produce essentially the most energy on the planet, alongside China’s Three Gorges, had its vitality shared out underneath a 1973 treaty.

However Paraguay demanded extra and ultimately acquired thrice more cash from Brazil, which makes use of 85 p.c of the electrical energy produced.

In 2019, a brand new deal on the sale of energy from Itaipu almost introduced down Paraguay’s authorities, with consultants arguing it could scale back Paraguay’s entry to low-cost energy.

The 2 nations promptly cancelled the deal.

LAHORE: Chief Organizer of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Maryam Nawaz on Sunday claimed {that a} group of “educated terrorists and miscreants from proscribed organizations” had been residing in Zaman Park Lahore, as an alternative of political staff.

In her tweet on Sunday, she expressed her issues over the latest violent incidents in Zaman Park and careworn the significance of not ignoring them.

In accordance with her, the perpetrators of those violent acts had been extremely educated terrorists and miscreants.

Moreover, she accused Imran Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of supporting banned organizations.

Maryam alleged that Imran Khan has a historical past of supporting such outfits and that among the individuals concerned within the latest violent incidents in Zaman Park had been recruited from these banned teams.

Emphasizing the essential function of the state important to play in making certain the protection and safety of its residents, Maryam careworn that it was important for the federal government to take immediate and efficient motion earlier than it’s too late.

She known as for a proactive strategy by the state in addressing these points, somewhat than ready for them to escalate additional.

In the meantime, Federal Data Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday mentioned that PTI is a terrorist group, so the Supreme Court docket ought to take take suo motu discover towards this “terrorist celebration”.

She mentioned whereas addressing a presser in Lahore. She mentioned that Imran had gone mad with the starvation of energy. She puzzled on the logic of Imran as he was claiming that he can be bought killed if he went to court docket. Marriyam mentioned that the Ladla (blue eyed) had been offered safety and facilitated. lashed out at PTI Chairman Imran Khan for intimidating judiciary by his ‘terrorism’, making enjoyable of the judicial system.

Marriyum mentioned that the previous premier had ruined the economic system. She known as her ‘mendacity political terrorist and a international agent who has launched an assault on the state’.

She mentioned that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf just isn’t a political celebration, rater ‘a terrorist’ has been imposed on our society. She mentioned the court docket is summoning him and he’s refusing to seem earlier than it. The minister said that weapons and petrol bombs had been discovered from Imran’s residence throughout police search operation.