Dear Vanessa,
 
You have raised a number of interesting questions regarding China's use of water. While I don't focus on that region there are a couple of points that occurred to me.
 
One, while China's domestic water issues are linked to the international rivers it also relies on, each sub-topic you have raised is a huge area unto itself. China's domestic issues regarding quality and quantity will no doubt have a vast literature unto itself, as would the other areas so you may wish to narrow your focus. May I also suggest checking out work by Declan Conway on China's water, Jeffrey Jacobs' work on the Mekong, and I think the IWMI has done some research on China's irrigation sector. For the Brahmaputra, though Ben Crow focused on the Farakka Barrage dispute between India and Bangladesh it is worth reading for an understanding of how governments manage international negotiations.
 
Two, if you are looking at the justifications China uses to keep Tibet, I would encourage you to be careful of retro-fitting, and be mindful of the sources you rely on for evidence. I say this because of what I saw on the Indus basin, another river that has its source in Tibet, and the issue of Kashmir. When modern-day India and Pakistan were created in 1947, there was a dispute about which country the state of Kashmir should belong to. For the first few years, Kashmir was only referred to in terms of national identity. The establishment paper in Pakistan, Dawn, wrote about Kashmir on almost a daily basis, and there was fair coverage in the Times of India. In parallel, a water dispute arose between the countries in 1948, and after a several attempts at resolving their dispute bilaterally, India and Pakistan accepted the World Bank's assistance in 1951. Around this time, the Pakistani government issued a document saying that Kashmir was vital to Pakistan's survival because the rivers it depended on economically flowed through the state and, therefore, Pakistan should get Kashmir. The Pakistani press included this argument for a little while, but when the politicians went back to the national identity approach, it was dropped. It still comes up on occasion, even in work that's meant to be more academic. It is not that these rivers don't flow through Kashmir, it is that the dispute over Kashmir when it started in 1947 was not about water. The argument about water only arose when politicians and government officials registered the importance of water and then looked at the geography and retro-fitted water to Kashmir. 
 
In terms of sources, newspapers and other public media are not necessarily direct communicators of government intent. During the Bank assisted negotiations, there was also a discrepancy between the public and private rhetoric. The public face was one of war while the private discussions focused on cooperation. I touch on this issue in an article in The Geography Journal in 2002, "Questioning the water wars rationale".
 
Good luck with your work.
 
Best,
Undala (Alam)
 

 
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2013 19:22:52 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Power of Water and the strategic importance of Tibet
To: [log in to unmask]

I want to echo Douglas' cautionary note about Chellaney's book. I've written a critical review of it for Antipode, for those interested:

http://radicalantipode.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/book-review_akhter-on-chellaney.pdf

Two other recommendations:

Wirsing, R. G., Jasparro, C., & Stoll, D. C. (2012). International Conflict Over Water Resources in Himalayan Asia: Conflict and Cooperation Over Asia's Water Resources. Palgrave Macmillan.

Furlong, K. (2006). Hidden theories, troubled waters: International relations, the ‘territorial trap’, and the Southern African Development Community's transboundary waters. Political Geography, 25(4), 438-458.

Good luck!

Majed Akhter

Department of Geography
Indiana University - Bloomington




On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 4:32 PM, Douglas Hill <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi Vanessa

 I forgot to add Kenneth Pomeranz's recent work on this: “The Great Himalayan Watershed: Agrarian Crisis, Mega-Dams  and the Environment.”  Short version published in New Left Review 58 (July/August 2009), pp. 5-39; longer version published in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, July 27, 2009

best wishes

Doug

From: Douglas Hill
Sent: Friday, 9 August 2013 8:09 a.m.
To: Vanessa Lessa; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: The Power of Water and the strategic importance of Tibet

Hi Vanessa
I agree this is a topic of emerging importance. On China's domestic water politics, see Andrew Mertha's China’s Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change (Cornell University Press, 2008).
While you will no doubt come across a lot of references to Brahma Chellaney's Water Asia's New Battleground (Georgetown University Press), I personally think that his work tells us as much about about how hawks in India's security community think about China as it does about the emerging situation over water in the Tibetan Plateau.Katherine Morton (ANU) has started to look at these questions in earnest, although I am unsure which specific piece would be best for your purposes. My own stuff, which is mainly from the South Asian side of the Himalayas, but reflects on China's emerging role, includes Hill, D.P. (2013) 'Trans-boundary Water Resources and Uneven Development: Crisis in and beyond contemporary India' South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol 36 No. 2, pp. 243-257 and Hill, D.P. (2012) Alternative Institutional Arrangements: Managing Transboundary Water Resources in South Asia' Harvard Asia Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 61-66.
Hope this helps
Doug

From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Vanessa Lessa [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, 9 August 2013 3:09 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Power of Water and the strategic importance of Tibet

Dear all,

I am a student at SOAS University of London, majoring in International Politics of East Asia; it is my intention to explore the significance of water in Asia, focusing on its importance for China and taking into particular account the strategic geopolitical role of Tibet.

I intend to investigate Chinese domestic water problems (mainly pollution and scarcity), and the approach of China’s government to face these problems (damming and diverting rivers). It is also my aim to look at trans-boundary water issues, taking into particular account Mekong River (China-SEA internationals questions) and Brahmaputra River (China-India disputes) examples.

It is in regards of these two issues that is my intention to introduce Tibet strategic importance. Named “the Third Pole" or “Asia's Water Tower”, Tibet has become of vital importance for the PRC as a source of fresh water.

My intention is to demonstrate that apart from the other strategic roles of Tibet (f.i. geopolitical, natural resources, internal stability and tourism) water is now the fundamental reason why China needs Tibet.

Chinese rapid economic growth and the growing Western demand are challenging today’s Chinese environmental situation (together with the global environmental situation), this is why China’s only two options in order to keep on developing along with improving its water issues could only be: embrace the sustainable developmental path or hold tight on Tibet.


I was wondering if anyone could help me suggesting some academic sources that could give me the right direction over the topic.

Regards,
Vanessa