Beth Walker
The Third Pole
December 23, 2014
We look back at the major environmental stories from a turbulent year.
(Photo by Yang Yong)
The series of natural disasters that battered the Himalayan region and South Asia during 2014 threw in stark relief the region’s vulnerability to climate change as well as poor planning and development policies.
In June a massive landslide on the Nepal-China border killed over 150 people and blocked the main highway, stranding hundreds of pilgrims travelling to the holy Mount Kailash in Tibet. Although landslides are common in mountainous Nepal, this one was huge and raised questions of what other calamities climate change has in store for the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region.
In September intense and unseasonable rainfall in the Indus river basin left a trail of destruction in Kashmir which spread to other parts of northern India and Sindh and Punjab provinces in Pakistan. India’s northern state of Kashmir hit by the worst floods in 50 years. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, declared it a national disaster. With crops and livestock under water, a state that was re-emerging from years of conflict suffered a cruel setback.
On the Pakistani side, the flooding was equally devastating with more than 300 dead, 2.3 million people affected and rural livelihoods decimated as cotton fields were intentionally flooded to save cities. Only four years ago an epic flood engulfed large swaths of Pakistan, displacing 20 million people across the country, leading the UN to describe it as the worst humanitarian disaster of its time.
However, few lessons have been learnt from the 2010 floods and the havoc exposed, yet again, the lack of proper disaster management in both countries. Amid Pakistani accusations India that did not pass on key flood information, senior Indian officials admitted there is no flood warning system for Indian-administered Kashmir itself. Improper land use and poor urban infrastructure mean weather events will continue to turn into disasters, say experts.
In October the monsoon season was capped off with Cyclone Hudhud’s dramatic arrival in the Himalayas of Nepal which caused chaos and exposed further failings of early warning systems.
There was a small ray of light towards the end of the year as member states of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) agreed to establish a new regional disaster and environment centre. Some observers hope this can act as a clearing-house for reliable water data from member states.
Water and energy
Lack of water and energy are the two biggest constraints to growth in South Asia. The sub-continent is racked by energy shortages, with lack of investment, crumbling infrastructure and inefficient systems resulting in economic losses. Nepal continued to suffer 18-hours-a-day power cuts in the capital Kathmandu and power shortages in Pakistan sparked recurrent street protests this year.
A more collective approach could relieve debilitating shortages. At the November SAARC summit in Kathmandu, member states – including India and Pakistan– agreed to develop cross border energy trade and transmission lines, a move aimed to facilitate the integration of the regional energy grid. India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh already have an interconnected grid.
Meanwhile countries hope to tap Himalayan hydropower to close the power gap. Nepal opened up its hydropower sector to foreign investment, signing deals with India for 1,800 megawatts (almost double its current supply). China is now hoping to seal the deal on the long-stalled West Seti dam.
In September, India gave a green light to the construction of the largest dam in its history on a tributary of the Brahmaputra River, with no public consultation or study of downstream impacts. The 3,000 megawatt Dibang hydropower project will be built in the ecologically fragile region of Arunachal Pradesh, north-east India and is one of 168 large dams slated for the region.
In November, the largest dam in Tibet on the Brahmaputra River began producing power, causing concern in the Indian media over the impact on downstream water flow. This marks the beginning of large scale hydropower in Tibet.
Both India and China are also steamrolling road and infrastructure projects in this remote region in a race to mark their stake on the water and resources of the region.
At the coalface
The year saw smog descend yet again over large swathes of China, even tarnishing the famous blue sky days of Lhasa. New Delhi is worse off than Beijing, the city that gets all the flak, on all parameters of air pollution, according to a new study released earlier this year.
As China set ambitious targets to cap its own coal consumption by 2020 it signed deals with Pakistan in November to develop a number of coal-fired power stations and other energy projects that will more than double Pakistan’s total power output. Meanwhile an India-Bangladesh joint venture to build a large coal plant in the Sundarbans, the world’s biggest mangrove forest, triggered protests over the health and environmental impacts. Officials claim it will not harm the fragile ecosystem. Bangladesh hopes to triple its power supply by 2030, with half to be generated from coal, government records show.
Cooperation runs dry
While the region made some small steps forward on energy cooperation this goodwill failed to spill over into greater cooperation over shared rivers. In August, UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses came into effect, setting up the first global legal framework for cooperation over water resources between countries after 50 years of drafting. However China voted against the Convention and India and South Asian countries abstained.
In August, the Indian and Pakistani Indus Waters Commissioners agreed to re-examine Pakistan’s objections over designs of Kishanganga dam and four other hydropower dams on Jhelum and Chenab rivers – tributaries of the Indus.
Pakistan has opposed the projects since they got off the drawing board. But India has steadfastly maintained that the run-of-the-river projects follow the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty between the two countries to the letter.
Meanwhile, construction of the Kishanganga dam in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state has led to water pollution and health problems in the mountain area.
A solution to the problem of sharing the Teesta waters continued to elude India and Bangladesh. Talks have dragged on over two decades, while the Teesta has now been reduced to a trickle in northern Bangladesh in the lean season, say affected villagers, many of whom staged protests in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere this year.
South Asian countries did unite to call for a legally binding climate treaty by 2015 ahead of head of the UN climate talks in Peru in December. However, hopes were dashed as negotiations ended in a call for action that falls far short of what will be required to combat climate change.
Water diversion
Both India and China pushed ahead with their water diversion projects this year – displaying a continued penchant for engineering solutions over promoting efficient water use. The second route of China’s $80 billion South North Water Transfer project was switched on in December, with water from the Yangtze reaching Beijing for the first time. The western route of the controversial project – which will divert waters from three tributaries of the upper Yangtze across the Tibetan plateau – is on hold pending a feasibility study.
In October, the Indian government announced plans to fast-track its own ill-conceived and potentially disastrous scheme to link 30 rivers across the country, including the Brahmaputra and the Ganga in the Himalayas. This is even more ambitious than China’s plans in terms of costs and water quantity.
The year ended with a serious oil spill in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, another source of danger to the fragile ecosystem.
