Will we ever learn ?
On a smaller scale, the Tagus-Segura water transfer project [0] in Spain is creating problems not only for Portugal who receives less water in the Tejo river, but also fueling unsustainable agriculture booms which in turn have created ecological disasters [1]
Often these water transfers introduce invasive species.
Developing countries are pretty starved if foreign exchange. Perhaps local development sounds superior to cash, but look up "balance-of-payments-constrained growth". It's a tricky issue.
It is no coincidence that once china brutally overtook power over Tibet it soon afterward deverted tibetian rivers to flow into china and away from their normal southernly trajectory
> "With new water from Tibet, Xinjiang would boom like California,"
War for water is getting real. RIP Bangladesh, East Indian States and Uyghur people, the former two for starving due to the loss of a huge water source for their crops, and the latter for becoming a stranger in their own lands after millions of Chinese flow into Xinjiang for jobs and cheap food/housing. Inflow being trivialized by high-speed rail.
Often these water transfers introduce invasive species.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagus-Segura_Water_Transfer
[1] https://inspain.news/mar-menor-is-victim-of-water-diversion-...
(THE TAGUS-SEGURA WATER TRANSFER Lessons from the past (pdf))
[2] http://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/tagusseguratr...