Bangladesh Is Losing Its Water — First to India, Now China

Bangladesh depends on rivers it doesn't control — about 93% of its surface water flows in from across its borders. For decades it has fought India over shared rivers: the Farakka Barrage on the Ganga, and the still-unresolved Teesta. Now the bigger threat is on a third river — the Brahmaputra, Bangladesh's single largest water source. Far upstream in Tibet, China has begun building the Medog (Motuo) dam at the great bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo: around 60 gigawatts, potentially the largest hydropower project on Earth, roughly three times the Three Gorges. The twist: China can't simply switch the river off, because the monsoon makes most of its water inside India. But China can control the timing — holding water back in the dry season, or releasing a flood — and even India fears that leverage. So India is racing to build its own giant dam on the Siang to hold China back, over the objections of the Adi people of Arunachal Pradesh whose land it would flood. China dams India. India dams Bangladesh. And at the end of every river sits Dhaka, with the most to lose and the least say. Follow Money Maps for more geopolitics, mapped. #Bangladesh #Brahmaputra #Teesta #China #India #Water #Geopolitics #Shorts