There is a fundamental and ...

There is a fundamental and critical error in the concept of 'Linking India's Rivers'. Whilst issues of hydrology, hydraulics, ecology, and social interests are themselves highly complex and in this case grossly under-investigated, the prime fallacy inherent in this concept is expressed by that simple word in the title of the project – 'India's'.

The Indus and Brahmaputra are NOT India's rivers! They are natural resources that are shared with other nations. Regarding the drainage flows from the Himalayan massif into the Indus as Indian property, to be allocated and diverted wherever might be most useful (for India) ignores the legal entitlement of the people of Pakistan to much of that water.

Equally, flows down the Brahmaputra are NOT all available to India, merely because this great river flows through a few Km of Indian territory. The people of Bangladesh downstream are also almost entirely dependent on this source for their own survival.

Such introspective planning is unfortunately not new in the region. The diversion of the Ganga into the Hoogly at Farakka, to preserve the hydraulics of that river and Kolkata Port, deprived south-western Bangladesh and part of the Sundarbanns of essential water and had devastating effects on the lower Ganga in Bangladesh. Remarkably, the EIA for the Farakka Barrage – at least the version disclosed to me - inexplicably failed to consider any downstream impacts whatever.

The dilemma faced by India is quite simple here. If, as it appears to be assumed, India is entitled to abstract as much water as it decides that it needs from the Brahmaputra, regardless of the entitlement of Bangladesh, then precisely the same reasoning supports the view that China has just as much right to abstract water from the Brahmaputra before it reaches Indian territory.

The issue of inter-basin transfers is complex when carried out entirely within the boundaries of sovereign states. When it broadens to multi-state territories, especially where geopolitical interests are in conflict, then the spectre of the long-predicted water wars emerges as an inevitable consequence.

My qualifications for making this statement? Top-level scientific responsibility for environmental analysis in the Indus Basin Drainage Plan and the Bangladesh Flood Action Plan, and research on the impacts of the diversion of the Ganga at Farakka and of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, among many other similar projects.