There are lessons for India from China on dams

The building of large dams has increasingly run into grassroots opposition in established democracies but gained momentum in autocratic states, which often tout their benefits for combating droughts and water shortages. But, as the Mekong Basin illustrates, giant upstream dams can contribute to river depletion and intensify parched conditions. The spate of dam building in Asian autocracies is exacerbating already-fraught water security disputes.

India, for its part, demonstrates that dams and democracy normally don’t go well together. Whereas China continues to build giant dams, describing them as symbols of its engineering prowess, the public pressures generated by India’s democracy act as a brake on ambitious water projects that displace many people or flood vast areas. While India’s river-linking plan remains in the realm of fantasy, a similar programme in China has been transferring water domestically through the central and eastern routes.

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