The countries likely to bear the brunt of such massive diversion of waters are those located farthest downstream on rivers like the Brahmaputra and Mekong – Bangladesh, whose very future is threatened by climate and environmental change, and Vietnam, a rice bowl of Asia. China’s water appropriations from the Illy River threaten to turn Kazakhstan’s Lake Balkhash into another Aral Sea, which has shrunk to less than half its original size.
而首先受到这种大规模截水工程危害的则是那些位于雅鲁藏布江或者湄公河最下游位置的国家——比如国家前途正在受到气候和环境变化威胁的孟加拉，或者亚洲的稻米大国越南。中国对伊犁河水资源的截留也使哈萨克斯坦的巴尔喀什湖面临成为第二个咸海的危险，因为它的面积已经萎缩到不足原来的1/2了。