3.5.3 International Scenario

3.5.3 International Scenario

International experience in linking of rivers has shown both beneficial and harmful aspects. Diversion of water in upper reaches in the case of the Aral Sea in Central Asia (in former USSR) resulted in loss of over 60 per cent of its surface area and two-thirds of volume. The cause is attributed to a vast expansion of irrigation in the Central Asian Republics beginning in the 1950s, which greatly reduced inflows to the Sea. China has officially launched the world's largest water diversion project, which will divert water from the Yangtze River in the south to the country's dry north, including Beijing. The project, valued at US $ 59 billion, may cost twice as much as the ongoing Three Gorges Hydroelectric Project. The project will be the biggest of its kind in the world and the largest engineering programme in China. It· consists of three canals running about 1,300 km through the country's eastern, middle and western parts.

The Spanish National Hydrological Plan (SNHP) has proposed a massive transfer of water from the Erbo river in the north of the country to the Valencia and Murcia rivers in the south, which suffers severe water shortage difficulties due to such things as intensive agriculture and tourism. There, however, have been reactions regarding the loss of Europe's most ecologically important wetlands and the proposal is being reviewed.

Last modified: Friday, 2 December 2011, 10:13 AM