Asia | right decisions now Make the


Climate change and water resource management are at the heart of discussions taking place within the dams and hydropower industry across Asia


Below: Baihetan Dam construction on the Yangtze River in China


CHINA WATER RISK (CWR) has released a new report called “No River, No Power – Can Asia’s rivers power growth in a changing climate?”, which maps a third of global power generation capacity to find that escalating climate risks and rivers running dry can strand sizeable portions of national power generation assets. CWR says the report highlights clear national energy security implications for 16 countries from China, India, Pakistan, Laos, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nepal to Bhutan and warns that climate risks are already posing problems, adding that worse is still to come unless stakeholders make the right energy decisions today for economic, water and energy security tomorrow. Of the 1.9TW of power analysed by CWR almost half is clustered in ten rivers that flow from the Hindu Kush


Himalayan Water Towers. Known as the cradles of Asia’s civilisation, these are the Amu Darya, Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Salween, Tarim, Yangtze and Yellow rivers. Furthermore, over 94% of this analysed generation needs water and almost 38% is located in basin areas that already face high to extremely high water stress or are arid. “Components of river flow such as glacial melt, snow/rainfall and monsoon patterns are all impacted by climate change so it’s not just national power assets that can be stranded,” explained Debra Tan, Head of CWR and lead author of the report. “Lives and livelihoods are also at stake – one in two Asians live in these ten river basins where over US$4.3trillion of GDP is generated annually.”


18 | February 2024 | www.waterpowermagazine.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37