Water wars? Thirsty, energy-short China stirs fear [View All]

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: AP

BAHIR JONAI, India (AP) -- The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering speed as it raked the banks of towering trees and boulders. When the torrent struck their island in the Brahmaputra river, the villagers remember, it took only moments to obliterate their houses, possessions and livestock.

No one knows exactly how the disaster happened, but everyone knows whom to blame: neighboring China.

"We don't trust the Chinese," says fisherman Akshay Sarkar at the resettlement site where he has lived since the 2000 flood. "They gave us no warning. They may do it again."

About 800 kilometers (500 miles) east, in northern Thailand, Chamlong Saengphet stands in the Mekong river, in water that comes only up to her shins. She is collecting edible river weeds from dwindling beds. A neighbor has hung up his fishing nets, his catches now too meager.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_ASIA_WATERS_BATTLEFIELD?SITE=MELEE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-04-16-10-44-14