Yes. I see a pattern of human behavior connected with the issue of sharing river waters. Be it between Karnataka & Tamil Nadu or Pakistan & India. If things are not solve dharmically (a.k.a amicably) then war will break out.
River waters will be a pain in the wrong place with growing population on this planet.
I recently visited nangal dam in punjab the water would straight flow into pakistan ( a few miles away)but this dam turns it right side into thirsty rajastan
also drove along the dry vaigai last week to manamadurai. realised how vaigai dam made the upstream people rich and the down stream people deprived of their natural rights
1. Rivers can be used as a weapon in long-drawn wars. And in wars, especially proxy ones, human rights are thrown out the window. 2. Discussing the rights of the people living in the upper & lower reaches of a river system can get very tricky. As long as the population on the planet was sustainable then these people really did not impact each other much. Once the population began to balloon, it is just tonnes of problems. 3. India is not unique in this aspect, people across the globe fight for water.
as experts say the next war is about water not land
dams are perhaps responsible for stable harvests and hence balooning populations
but then they do create grave injustices down stream
cauvery being dammed among first in the world has reacted by narrower widths further down.
though it is quite wide at the final point poompuhar just 8 km before it when the karaikal road cuts it, its just a stream. the world record long jump champion should be able to cross it without getting his feet wet
Water sharing problem too will peter out eventually if existing big dams are dismantled and a ban on new tall dams. If only check dams are allowed, available water will be stored over a larger area, distributed over several states and districts. Ground water table will also rise.
I have noticed this phenomenon over several years. During early monson periods, the emphasis is on filling the dams, and virtually all downflow is stopped. When the monsoon recedes with a heavy rainfall for even a day or two, all villages and towns downstream are flodded as the dams also release max water to protect the dam- double blow to the people living on the banks.
Even if the dams store only 50% of the inflow, and not allowed to fill to the brim, flooding will be a lot less. Sampath