This article comes from the WeChat public account:Earth Knowledge Bureau (ID: diqiuzhishiju) , author: Sven Fan seniors, cartography: Sun green, proofreading: cat Stewart, editor: Yakult, head Figure from: vision China
When it comes to Ganges, the first country people think of must be India. The Ganges seems to be the exclusive label of India, and the Indian government is also happy to consolidate this stereotype.
But the Ganges is actually an international river, and the country that flows through is not only India, it is also an important river for the countries in the basin.
Let the goddess and the Ganges bless each other to make the Ganges more and more the Ganges of India (Photo: Rudra Narayan Mitra / Shutterstock)▼
However, precipitation in the Ganges River Basin is not stable. Gang River water is an increasingly valuable resource for the densely populated coastal countries, which are brought about by religious, historical and political reasons Distrust also exacerbated the tension in the water grab battle.
Behind “dried this bowl of Ganges water” is the struggle and compromise of the coastal countries.
The two most important rivers in South Asia: Indus and Ganges, the Indus Basin accounts for only a small part of India, and the Ganges Basin accounts for most of it ▼
Remaining issues of history
In the Hindu culture, the Ganges is regarded as the Mother River and the Holy River, and the river water is endowed with a sacred meaning. Hindus believe that the Ganges water can purify pollution and save the dead, and regard the Ganges as a pilgrimage destination, and important Hindu festivals often surround it.
It seems that even the soul has been purified, (Photo: Yavuz Sariyildiz / Shutterstock)▼
After thousands of years of cultural accumulation, the holy city of Hinduism is often distributed around the Ganges, which is even higherThe status of the Ganges in Hinduism. Similarly, this gave hints to many Hindus that they mistakenly believed that the Ganges belonged to India, and should even belong to India only.
The famous holy city of Varanasi is near the Ganges River, and it is also regarded by many as the spiritual capital of India (Varanasi, India, at sunrise To pray to the Ganges) (Photo: Roop_Dey / Shutterstock.com)▼
The Ganges River is located in South Asia. The glacial melt waters of the northern Himalayas and the rainfall from the summer southwest monsoon provide countless tributaries to the Ganges River and a drainage area of 1.08 million square kilometers. The water and fertile soil brought by the Ganges have nurtured a dense population. Historically, the powerful regime in the South Asian subcontinent often took the Ganges river basin as its core zone.
The great empire in the history of India often comes from the northwest and the south, so they often control the Indus and Ganges simultaneously▼
However, the flow of the Ganges is not stable. The rainfall in the basin is concentrated from June to October. In other months, the Ganges and its tributaries have become an indispensable source of irrigation water. During the dry period from January to May, the water resources of the Ganges River are particularly tense. The right to use water resources has become the right to development or even the right to survive. It is not surprising that the coastal countries are preoccupied with the water of the Ganges River.
The amount of water in the dry season is greatly reduced. How to maintain the agricultural production and residential water consumption along the coast is a common problem in all countries in the Ganges River Basin (dry and hot Madhya Pradesh- A small tributary that tends to dry up (Photo: SB Stock / shutterstock)▼
Many tributaries also make the determination of the source of the Ganges difficult. Under the influence of politics and religion, there is especially room for operation. Countries that understand the international river water resources allocation rules earlier can take the initiative and use the first-mover advantage to consolidate and rationalize these benefits.
So, under the standards of different countries, the length of the Ganges is also erratic. In the world, the Ganges is generally 2,601 kilometers long, but India has long defined its length as 1925 kilometers long. This also shows the Indians’ ambitions for the Ganges, because if according to the definition of India, 99% of the Ganges river basin area and 94% of the population are in India, India’s power over the Ganges seems to have no power Controversial.
Many tributaries of the Ganges River Basin, which can be roughly divided into east and west branches, the Ganges main stream and the Yarlung Zangbo River-Brahmaputra River-Jamuna River ▼
However, no matter how people define the source problem, the Ganges’ estuary is determined. That is Bangladesh’s Ganges Delta, so Bangladesh is also an indisputable basin country. Because Bangladesh belonged to East Pakistan for a long time after the partition of India and Pakistan, The issue of the use of the Ganges has become a sovereignty issue between two old enemies, and it is difficult for a long time to stand still.
The Ganges Delta is the world’s largest delta, and it can even be said to be the essence of Bangladesh, which is a rare blessing and a huge disaster , (Base picture from: NASA)▼
But India also understands that directly defining the Ganges as a river belonging to India is far-fetched, so India has left a window of “dialogue”( And emphasize that it is not a negotiation), Use the status and strong attitude of its upstream country to strive for its best interests.
In addition to the obvious basin country Bangladesh, Nepal is actually a participant in the Ganges water problem. More than 6,000 tributaries in this small mountainous country eventually merge into the Ganges River. Coupled with the huge terrain drop, it also has a great influence on the Ganges water volume.
Nepal is a true upstream country, and its rivers have contributed huge runoff to the Ganges, and it is also very suitable for the development of hydropower resources (base map from: shutterstock)▼
It’s just that It’s difficult for Nepal, a small country with few people, to independently develop the rich water resources here, so it has to cooperate with India. It was therefore involved in the dispute over the Ganges water source by India.
The status of a single dominance
In the three parties involved in water disputes, India is undoubtedly a strong player. However, this powerful man did not show the attitude of being a responsible big country while controlling water resources, so that the upstream and downstream partners have questioned its dominance.
Nepal has 83,000 megawatts of hydropower development potential,but most of its major hydropower facilities include India. For example, in the 1950s, India and Nepal jointly built the Kesi Dam and Gan Daki Dam, both of which paid for India, and Nepal came out of the ground. After the signing of the relevant treaties, both caused uproar in Nepal.
Kesi Dam on the Nepal side of the border between Nepal and India (from: google map)▼
Especially during the construction of the Kesi Dam in 1954, Nepal lacked relevant experience. It should have been an agreement for equal cooperation, and the taste of a treaty of betrayal was signed: The land near the dam became India’s property, India’s increased irrigation income after the construction of the dam is also 50 times that of Nepal. Although Nepal receives four-fifths of the electricity generated, it is not freelyBuy at a high price.
In the “Kosai Agreement”, Nepal was required to provide engineering land, and the ownership of this engineering land in India was granted, but the land was given, but Did not get a corresponding return (Photo: Subhmanish / Wikipedia)▼
The dam built in front of his house turned into a cash cow for Indians.
After several similar cooperations, Nepalese people have left India in the name of cooperating in the development of natural resources and invading sovereignty, raising the water issue with India to the height of national sovereignty and national dignity.
Fortunately, Nepal is in the upstream position, you can entrust private companies or other big countries to build hydropower stations, and have the flow control rights (Photo: Milan GC / Wikipedia)▼
If the dispute with Nepal stems from bullying the small and trying to covertly take advantage of it, then the water dispute between India and its old rival is blatantly tit-for-tat.
In 1951, India planned to force the Ganges to divert before entering Bangladesh, leaving the Ganges water to the maximum in the country. Finally finalized at Farakah UniversityThe dam will bring part of the Ganges water into the Pajilty River in West Bengal, India.
Note the location of Kesi Dam and Faraka Dam in the picture below. Kesi Dam is on the Nepal side and Faraka Dam is on the India side , Faraka Dam has a significant impact on the Ganges flowing into Bangladesh▼
According to Bangladesh’s calculations, if the dam is not built, the Ganges’ water consumption in the dry season will be sufficient for India. After the dam is put into use, the dry season’s water flow into Bangladesh will be greatly reduced, seriously Affect irrigation water. This is not so much a water conservancy project as a political project.
Rice is the main crop in Bangladesh. This is due to sufficient water supply. If the flow down during the dry season is greatly reduced, it will affect Bangladesh. The country’s agricultural base (Photo: Sk Hasan Ali / Shutterstock.com)▼
The Faraka Dam was completed in 1971 and Bangladesh became independent in the same year. Relations with India have eased. However, negotiations on water resources are still difficult. India still believes that it owns the Ganges. The Ganges is not an international river. What kind of water conservancy projects to use in India as an upstream is an internal issue.
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