Brahmaputra diversion by China: How should India respond?

[SATISH]

These guys can also become nuts and go and bomb the Indian dam and flooding Pakistan. Some guys in their establishment are too insane even to do this.

 

[F-14]

werent they alrady Nuts in the First place i always feel that Jhinna might be truning in his grave

 

[nitesh]

They have a suicidal tendency. They are absolutely no hopers and know that. They know their country and life is in deep shyt and they can't do a thing about that. So all they can think about is to self destruct and take down India with them.

They seem to think that it will be the end of India and Hinduism while their Arab masters and their holy places in Arabia will survive and for many of them it is an acceptable price, such is the filth that these guys are upto.

I say, make it clear to them that all these assumptions may not necessarily be true and India will hit them where it hurts the most.

For this we need to make clear to the world that if we are attacked by nuclear weapons from Pakistan we will nake all those who supported them.

 

[Vinod2070]

For this we need to make clear to the world that if we are attacked by nuclear weapons from Pakistan we will nake all those who supported them.

I am sure it has already been done to those who need to know this.

There are rumours that USA threatened the AQ about what they will bomb next if they attacked the USA mainland. The AQ pissed in the pants when they heard the target and there has not been a single attack on the USA ever since!

The whole attack on Iraq and Afghanistan was to show the AQ that the USA was serious when they issued that threat.

This is the grapevine and not easy to confirm but I think it is not impossible.

Pakistan and their Arab masters should know what awaits them in case of any misadventure. Loud and clear!

 

[Yusuf]

The report does not need to be taken seriously as it's by an editor who is in the Zaid Hamid league.
But water is deffinitely an issue between the two countries and is a potential reason for a future war between the two countries more than even Kashmir. India can do to Pakistan with water what China is doing to India with the Brahmaputra. But never heard any Indian editor saying that it will result in a nuclear war with China.

 

[S.A.T.A]

Unlike the Brahma Putra,Indus is indeed the lifeline of the greater Sindhu basin which comprise of most fertile areas of Punjab and Sindh.Again unlike Brahmaputra which has many tributaries rising in India,The Indus' major tributaries like Jhelum and Chenab also flow through India.

India's river projects on the tributaries will have its affect on the Indus basin,we have always been cooperative with PAK with their legitimate concerns regarding water shortages,but the Indus and her tributaries are not completely exclusive to the Pakistanis.Even the IWT clearly states that.

Rants and rhetoric apart,even the pak establishment understands that.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

The report does not need to be taken seriously as it's by an editor who is in the Zaid Hamid league.
But water is deffinitely an issue between the two countries and is a potential reason for a future war between the two countries more than even Kashmir. India can do to Pakistan with water what China is doing to India with the Brahmaputra. But never heard any Indian editor saying that it will result in a nuclear war with China.

we will have to make up losing brahmaputra by taking oour indus back, china wins, india wins pakistan loses unless china can proliferate water to them

 

[K Factor]

Water dispute can trigger nuclear war with India: Nizami
Published: June 07, 2009

Once our BMD is in place we can calls these beggars bluff

If iy continues at this rate, soon a day will come when they will threaten us with nukes if India beats Pakistan's ass in cricket.

 

[Yusuf]

When two states in India cannot resolve their dispute over river water, I don't expect two sworn enemies to do so. Negotiations can be conducted only with people willing to shed prejudice, and stop thinking any move by India is taken to harm the other side. But that cannot be expected from Pakistan. There is a fair chance that India will be able to resolve it's issue with China, but never with Pakistan. Issues have not been helped further by the on off democracy in that country which has not allowed the two countries to resolve any differences due to the billegerence of it's military/intelligence.

 

[Vinod2070]

we will have to make up losing brahmaputra by taking oour indus back, china wins, india wins pakistan loses unless china can proliferate water to them

I think if China plays funny with Brahmputra, we can stop the tributaries that flow from India. It will be again Bangladesh that will be the biggest loser.

Our NE states should get by with the water from the tributaries I guess.

 

[Yusuf]

we will have to make up losing brahmaputra by taking oour indus back, china wins, india wins pakistan loses unless china can proliferate water to them

The potential loss of the Brahmaputra cannot be made up by the Indus. The Indus us on the west and caters to that part of India. The Brahmaputra is the dominant river of the east which is the life line of millions in that region of India and also Bangladesh. So we cannot let go of the Brahmaputra at any cost.

 

[F-14]

so what do you propose yusuf sir

 

[Yusuf]

That we make sure we resolve the Brahmaputra issue with China, and do what we please on the Indus. Pakistan can cry it's heart.

 

[Vinod2070]

I don't think China is doing anything on Brahmputra. What is there to take up if nothing is happening?

On Indus, I think we should develop the capability to turn off the tap to make Pakistan turn off it's terror tap. We don't want to starve them! Just make them realize what is what.

 

[Koji]

I don't think China is doing anything on Brahmputra. What is there to take up if nothing is happening?

On Indus, I think we should develop the capability to turn off the tap to make Pakistan turn off it's terror tap. We don't want to starve them! Just make them realize what is what.

They are planning or in the process of building a dam on the Brahmaputra I believe for power and irrigation purposes.

The Hindu Business Line : China, the Brahmaputra and India

 

[Rage]

They are planning or in the process of building a dam on the Brahmaputra I believe for power and irrigation purposes.

The Hindu Business Line : China, the Brahmaputra and India

No problem. Two can play at that sh*t:


x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

India and China starts a Dams Race on the Brahmaputra River

Worried that China might build a very big dam on the Brahmaputra River near its borders, India has recently approved two big dams of their own, "in principle", on the same river downstream in its state of Arunachal Pradesh. What is interesting, and disturbing at the same time, is that India is building these dams to pre-empt China by establishing a prior use claim.

A key member of India's Planning Council, Dr. Kirit Parikh, is reportedly pushing for this idea as "a broad strategic vision". I disagree with Dr. Parikh because China is not known for respecting riparian rights on international rivers. On the contrary, I think his words would only give more excuse for China to push ahead with their plans.

What follows is an editorial I wrote in 2004 in response to the news that India expressed concerns about Chinese plans then:


Let the Brahmaputra Flow

Tashi Tsering
Trin-Gyi-Pho-Nya: Tibet's Environment and Development Digest. January 12, 2004, Issue 4.


India finally expressed concern over Chinaís plans to divert the Brahmaputra River. In November 2003, several Indian news reports carried a story that the Indian state of Assamís Union Ministry of Water Resources asked their foreign affairs counterparts ìto seek factual detailsî about the project. Indiaís concerns became real after Chinaís official news agency, Xinhua, confirmed Chinaís intentions. According to Xinhua, preliminary studies of the water diversion project were conducted at the proposed construction site in mid-2003, followed by another round of feasibility studies in October. It would not be surprising if China denies having such plans, as did Tibet Autonomous Regionís Chairman, Xiang Ba Ping Cuo, at a press conference last August.

Construction of this mammoth multi-purpose project is tentatively scheduled to start in 2009. The main structures are planned in Tibetan areas of Pema Koe, near Indiaís northeastern border. The area is also known as the ìGreat Bendî of the Yarlung Tsangpo (Tibetan name for Brahmaputra) where the river takes a sharp U-turn to enter into India. At the Great Bend, the Tsangpo River descends over 3,000 meters in approximately 200 km, constituting one of the greatest hydropower potentials anywhere in the world. China hopes to build a hydroelectric plant there that would generate twice the electricity produced by the Three Gorges Dam, currently the worldís largest dam. Plans also include diverting the waters thousands of kilometers across the Tibetan Plateau to the ìthirstyî northwestern parts of China, into the provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu.

If undertaken, the project is bound to raise some serious transboundary issues. Claude Arpi, a Tibet-China-India analyst, called the project ìa declaration of warî by China. "When it comes to a transboundary question, where the boundary is not even agreed upon, it seems practically impossible to find a workable understanding," Arpi said. In addition to border disputes, the project would make India and Bangladesh dependent on China for release of water during the dry season, and for protection from floods during the wet season. Not to mention the adverse impacts on the millions of people living downstream when nutrient rich sediments and fish will be blocked by the dam. Arpi believes the most serious issue to be the fact that the Great Bend area is located in a highly earthquake prone area. "A huge reservoir and a few PNEs [Peaceful Nuclear Explosions, as proposed by Chinese scientists to make tunnels through the Himalayas for the project] could provoke new earthquakes even more devastating than in August 1950 when thousands died."

Such massive water control projects are clearly a state (central government) undertaking--without the economic and political support of the state, these projects cannot proceed. Unfortunately, and often ironically, national leaders prefer to marvel at their engineering accomplishments in controlling nature to serve economic development rather than addressing issues of transboundary and socio-environmental responsibilities. In fact, Chinaís plan to divert the Brahmaputra would impair India's own plan to link approximately thirty of its own rivers, a project that is bound to affect the downstream riparian state of Bangladesh.

Such international transboundary river development projects raise many important issues--from the comparative importance of national economic development to issues of social justice, from the primacy of territorial sovereignty to the merits of international cooperation. As important as these intractable topics of debate are, policy makers ought not to forget the real issue--the concern expressed by the affected people. After all, states exist to provide material and physical security to the people. The goal of development policies should be to benefit the people first, not powerful interest groups like corrupt bureaucracies and businesses.

While the Brahmaputra Diversion Plan will bring sizeable benefits to China in the form of construction jobs, electricity, and water for the "thirsty north," the price that the affected people and the environment must pay is clearly unacceptable. For the local Tibetans, the project is an imposition on their land and their birthright by the occupying Chinese government. The beneficiaries of the project are foreigners while "locals" are made to bear its price. If China is genuinely committed to human rights and sustainable development as it claims to be, then the Brahmaputra Diversion Plan should not be undertaken.


TIbetan Plateau: India and China starts a Dams Race on the Brahmaputra River

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

In further reading...

x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x


The Tsangpo River diversion project in Tibet


The Tibetan plateau is the ‘Principal Asian watershed and source of ten major rivers. Tibet water travel to eleven countries and are said to bring fresh water to over 85% of Asian population, approximately 50% of world’s population. Four of the world ten rivers the Brahmaputra, Indus, Yangtze, and Mekong have their head water on the Tibetan plateau. The other major Rivers which originate from Tibet are Sutlej, Karnali, Arun,Huang ho(yellow river) , Salween rivers .South Asia is mainly concerned with Brahmaputra, Indus, sutlej, Arun, Karnali, whose water is life line for more than I billion people living downstream .

”It is roughly estimated that 10-20% of Himalayan region is covered by glaciers ice while an addition area ranging from 30- 40% has seasonal snow cover Himalayan glaciers covers around 100,000 sq kms and store about 12,000 cubic kms of fresh water .The most incredible water tank in the world. China is facing a very serious water shortage, this problem is sought to be solved by diverting large quantities of water from the wet south to dry north . Traditionally in China people respect their emperor when he undertakes grandiose projects that no human mind can conceive of.

Since 1949, successive emperors have all undertaken such massive projects; the last one was the Three Gorges Dam initiated by then Chinese premier Li Peng. Today, as Hu Jintao and the Fourth Generation takes over China; an even more colossal project is lying on the design table: South-North water diversion. Engineers in Beijing have conceived a south –north water diversion.

1989: The "Preparatory Committee for the Shoutian Canal" was formed and headed by three senior generals.1996: The west became aware of the project. Late 1990s: 208 NPC (National People's Congress) deputies and 118 CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) delegates produced 16 proposals supporting the project. May 18-June 22, 1999: An official survey covered 13,600km and calculated that 600B m3 per year of the Brahmaputra waters were being wasted in Tibet.1999: Jiang Zemin announced the "xibu da kaifa" (Great Western Extraction) that would transfer huge volumes of water from Tibet into the Yellow River.

It was now fully supported by 118 generals, and the Politburo. It inspired Li Ling's book How Tibet's Water Will Save China, detailing Guo Kai's “Shuo-tian” (reverse flow) canal as the solution to chronic water shortages in China's dry north and northwest. Li Guoying director, Yellow River Water Conservancy Committee said "the project was essential because the Yellow River's current flow is being exhausted by development demands in western China".

November 2005: Strategy manual Save China Through Water From Tibet adopted by the PLA, relevant ministries and directorates. End 2005: China Hydropower Engineering Consulting Group began analysing hydro potential on sectors of the Yalung Tsangpo. February 2006: Detailed planning for the "Tsangpo Project" approved by State Council with the full support of Hu Jintao. Chief planner is Professor Chen Chuanyu. End June 2006: Studies concluded on the potential of the lower reaches of the Yalung Tsangpo.August 2006: Li Guoying, director, Yellow River Water Conservancy Committee:

… the (Yalung) project was essential because the Yellow River's current flow is being exhausted by development demands in western China … The route isn't especially long, but it's technologically challenging, and it's a matter of resolving the engineering and environmental questions. This project will be launched once the economic and social development of the NW reaches a certain level and the potential of water saving measures is exhausted. The Western Route is a firm plan and will go ahead ... CCP’s leaders and nearly all engineers, claim the W Route will fulfil promises to use rising economic and technological might to lift the less developed west.

Hydro projects now in the planning stages include the Tsangpo Project as one of eight in Nyingchi.October 2006: Beijing denied any support or approval for the "Tsangpo Project" but referred to Tibet as "an inexhaustible source of water". October, 2007: General Zhao Nanqi said, "Even if we do not begin this water diversion project, the next generation will. Sooner or later it will be done”. Construction was already scheduled to commence 2010 as part of the 100B Yuan Tibet capital works program.Discussion and on ground work has been ratcheted up since early 2003 with reports of intensive activity in the main gorge that Beijing claims to be mineral exploration.

Google Earth viewers will find this area blanked out by China. “It is the largest river on the Tibetan plateau, originating from a glacier near Mt. Kailash. It is considered to be the highest river on earth with an average altitude of 4,000 meters. It runs 2,057 kilometers in Tibet before flowing into India, where it becomes the Brahmaputra. One of its interesting characteristics is the ‘SHARP U-TURN’ it takes at the proximity of Mt. Namcha Barwa (7,782 meters) near the Indian border.” “Like the Nile in Egypt, the Yarlung Tsangpo has nurtured the Tibetan civilization which flourished along its valleys, particularly in Central Tibet.”“Near Shigatse region, the Yarlung valley is 20-30 kms wide. This area with its sand dunes and lakes is the cradle of the two thousand year-old civilization.”

“The Yarlung Tsangpo enters India in Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. The Brahmaputra has always been considered the very soul of the State by Assamese poets and ordinary people alike. Finally it divides into hundreds of channels to form a vast delta which flows into the Bay of Bengal. Although Chinese government claimed that the project is still at a conceptual stage, confidential sources confirmed that work of the project has already begun with the target to finish it in next five to seven years. Tsangpo project is part of China’s long-term river interlinking project to divert water from south to north.

China wants to build the dam as water flow of Yellow River declined due to huge water demand of the people of both sides of the river. “Although China denies launching of the project work, India and Bangladesh believe they will go ahead with its plan to divert water from south to north for irrigation in the vast stretches of land,” India has already expressed concern, fearing similar effects in Assam and Arunachal provinces.

Experts suggested that Bangladesh create pressure on China as per a United Nations convention on Law of Non-Navigation Uses of International Watercourses, which disallows countries from barring natural flow of water of any international river.


[...]

 

[Rage]

[...]


As Brahmaputra is an international river, China cannot build dams blocking water flow without prior permissions of Bangladesh and India.but same situation is created by wullar barrage Kishangang and buhglair dam diversion plan by India in Kashmir to totally barren province of Punjab Pakistan. Bangladesh is already facing water crisis in the major rivers due to India’s Farakka barrage on the Padma. Some 17 rivers have already died and seven more are awaiting the same fate due to the barrage. India is also planning to construct Tipaimukh dam on the upstream of Meghna River and initiate a river interlinking project that threatens to worsen the water crisis in Bangladesh and in Pakistan .

The river begins its journey in the glacier of western Tibet in close proximity to the sources of other mighty rivers -- the Indus and Sutlej, in the holy land of Lake Mansrovar and Mount Kailash. The Tsandpo-Brahmaputra travels west for 1,500 miles, hugging the northern slopes of the Himalayas through Tibet. All along its journey it gathers more water and sustains life in Tibet. Because of its remoteness, it has long gone unexplored. The river skirts the last of the Himalayan ranges and turns south into India into Arunachal Pradesh. It later turns west into the plains of the Indian state of Assam. Multiple smaller rivers join it in Arunachal Pradesh to make it into a huge water resource.

At about this place the pre-rainy season flow averages well above 120,000 cubic feet per second, rising to 1million cubic feet per second during the heavy monsoon rains. The Tsandpo begins its long journey at about 13,000 feet and drops to about 5,000 feet in eastern Tibet, before it enters India. Through a series of mysterious falls and gorges, the river manages to drop to about 1,000 feet and then to 500 feet in Assam state.

The water flow before the river enters Arunachal Pradesh is about 60,000 cubic feet per second. It is mostly fresh glacial water. As the river meanders thru Arunachal Pradesh it receives additional water from its tributaries and then in Assam from the discharge of other streams. The 1 million cubic feet per second flow of the Brahmaputra during the rainy season is due to the topography of the land. All the rainfall in the Assam hills is discharged into this river, making it at places 10 kilometers wide. This area is known for the highest rainfall in the world, leading at times to massive flooding in Assam and Bangladesh. Flooding brings misery, but it is also welcomed as it deposits rich nutrients for better crops the following year. Ever since they occupied Tibet, the Chinese have viewed the Tsandpo-Brahmaputra River as a source of hydroelectric power and a new source of water for the Yangtze River and parched northeast China.

Numerous rafting expeditions by the Chinese military were mounted to explore the river, prior to its entry into the deep gorges in India. They were looking for a suitable site to divert the river. The first hint of this scheme came out in official Chinese newspapers in the 1990s, confirming its intent. A Chinese-inspired paper in Scientific American in June 1996 also confirmed it.final words came in may 2007 and China is going to start work in 2009. The Chinese wished to use the tremendous drop in elevation of about 8,000 feet to generate electricity. According to the Chinese account, 40,000 megawatts could be generated.

Just before it enters India, the river would be diverted through a network of canals, tunnels and pipelines to China’s parched mainland. All the electricity generated would be needed to pump the river into the new system. The advantage to the Chinese would be that the parched northwest may become fertile. at the bottom of the tunnel, the water flow into a new reservoir and than diverted along more than 500 miles of Tibetan plateau to the vast ,arid areas of Xingjian region and Gansu province . Beijing want to use large quantities of the plentiful water of south –west to top up the Yellow river basin .mounting discontent over water shortage in 600-800 cities in northern China. Any remaining water could join the Yangtze River to inhibit silting in the Three Gorges Dam.

This scheme is twice as big as the Three Gorges Dam. About half the total capital of about US$40 billion will go to power generation and the rest into dams, diversion canals, pipelines and tunnels. The Tsangpo River originating in the western Tibetan plateau runs east then, bending acutely around a mountain knot called the Namcha Barwa, enters northeast Arunachal Pradesh as Siang, flowing south for a brief stretch, and then flows southwest into the Assam valley as the Brahmaputra. In its upper part, the river system passes through one of the longest and deepest canyons in the world. It enters Bangladesh near Rajibpur Upazila in Kurigram district and flows south retaining this name, but as it departs its old course as the Old Brhamaputra near Dewanganj (Jamalpur) it is known as the Jamuna.

It is in this set-up that a giant dam, expected to be the biggest plant ever made in the world, is to be constructed near the Namcha Barwa by the Chinese.It is expected that the dam will generate 40 million kilowatts per hour of hydroelectricity (double t he Three Gorges Dam over the Yangtse) once its 26 turbines begin operation. The electricity produced could be exported to India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. The 750M Yuan allocation for construction of the Medog highway suggests credence to the initiation of the Tsangpo Project.

State media has made numerous recent references to the 141km Bomi-Medog highway linking the lower Brahmaputra Valley with Tibet's main east-west highway 318. This is unusual expenditure considering Medog's population is less than 10,000 and mostly consists of Tibetans. Medog is 30km north of the disputed border with India and has a heavy, and reportedly increasing, military presence. In China, the diverted water would irrigate the northwestern part of the Gobi desert in Xinjiang and Gansu provinces of the country, aiming at crop production, and ease overpopulation in the east.

The Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics asserts "we can certainly accomplish this project with nuclear explosives." Its chief planner, Professor Chen Chuanyu, described the plan to drill a 15 km tunnel through the Himalayas to divert the water before the U-turn (at Namcha Barwa) and direct it to the end of the bend.This would shorten the approximately 3,000 meters altitude drop, from 100 km to just 15 km. The hydropower potential could be used to pump water to northwest China over 800 km away.

This multi-billion dollar project is scheduled to begin in 2009.The environmental and socio-economic consequences of this dam, and the diversion of water to northwestern China, are multiple and far reaching, not only for the Tibet region but also for India and Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh would be at the mercy of China for release of adequate amount of water during the dry season (as has happened to Pakistan due to bgahliar dam on river Chenab, Bangladesh with the Farakka dam on the Ganges), and for protection from floods during the rainy season.

Precipitation in northern India (particularly in Assam-Meghalaya region) and Bangladesh is very high (80%) during the monsoonal months of June to December, and low (2%) during the remaining months of the year.China, in her own interests, could withhold water for power generation and irrigation during the dry season and release water during the rainy season, with catastrophic consequences for the lower-riparian countries. Further, this whole region would be starved of nutrient-rich sediments that enrich the soil, but which would be held up in the reservoir instead of reaching the downstream GBM delta.Further, if the Tsangpo project is implemented, Chinese scientists hold that this dam would alleviate floods and erosion in the Brahmaputra. But this makes little sense, since flooding could actually get worse due to relentless silting which, will be accelerated by the slowing down (reduced velocity) of the river flow.It may be noted that flooding normally happens not as much because of snow-melt waters in the Tsango section, but more from the monsoon rains from the southern side of the Himalayas carried down by the tributaries.

On the other hand, Assam uses little water for irrigation purposes, and there is no commercial navigation in this section of the Brahmaputra in India. Therefore, Assam's economy might not be affected in any marked way, but the economy of Bangladesh would be affected very badly because its agriculture and inland water transportation are very much dependent upon the sustainable flow of the Brahmaputra. Bangladesh has reasons to be concerned about the Chinese design about the Tsangpo.

In view of the above; there are still options for a solution by the concerned countries by taking the matter to the negotiating table. If a river water treaty could be signed between India and Pakistan despite their hostile relationship, in the early 1960s, which really destroyed the agriculture of Pakistan giving the 3 eastern river to India and now Chenab River is totally dried by India after building huge reservoir (Bughlar dam) in Indian held Kashmir too. A similar agreement can be negotiated between China, India and Bangladesh in order to ensure an environment friendly solution as well as sustainable futuristic regional development of the co-riparian countries. Water war is looming in Asia India Pakistan Bangladesh and china is facing each other on water issue and dispute. This can turn to be a full scale war because three of them are nuclear power state.


Usman Karim based in Lahore Pakistan [email protected]


The Tsangpo River diversion project in Tibet | open Democracy News Analysis

 

[Rage]

And more recently, a statement by the former water chief on the proposed Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) project. Take it for what it's worth :

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


Nation won't divert Yarlung Tsangpo River to thirsty north

May 26, 2009


China doesn't plan to supply its thirsty north with water from world's highest river, which originates in Tibet, China's former water chief said Monday.

"The Chinese government has no plan to divert the Yarlung Zangbo River to the Yellow River," former water minister Wang Shucheng told a water resources seminar. The river is also known as the Tsangpo River.

With an average altitude of 4,500 meters, the Yarlung Zangbo River is the highest in the world. It originates in glacial regions of the northern Himalayas, runs 2,057 kilometers through Tibet in western China, passes into India and finally meets the Indian Ocean in the Bay of Bengal.

Wang rejected including the Yarlung Zangbo River in the western route of China's south-to-north water diversion project, designed to shift water from the water-rich south of the country, mainly the Yangtze, the country's longest river, to the dry north including Beijing.

"It is unnecessary, infeasible and unscientific to include the Yarlung Zangbo River in the western route of the massive project," Wang told an audience of 100 officials and scholars from 10 countries, including former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell.

The seminar was co-organized by the China Institute for International Strategic Studies, a non-governmental think tank, and the Hong Kong-based Michael Eric Bosman Hotung Foundation, a non-profit organization.

The south-north project, the largest such project ever undertaken, consists of eastern, central and western routes. The eastern and central routes are already under construction, while the western route, meant to replenish the Yellow River with water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze through aqueducts in the high mountains of western China, is still at the planning stage.

"The Yangtze, with annual capacity of 1 trillion cubic meters of water, is abundant enough to deal with the ecological, economic and social demand for water along the Yellow River," Wang said.

"The 10 billion cubic meters annually from the Yangtze will generate significant improvements for the Yellow River while having almost no impact on the longest river," Wang said.

As for a proposal to diverting 200 billion cubic meters annually from the Yarlung Zangbo River to the Yellow River, Wang said such volumes would damage many dams and embankments along the latter river.

Wang dismissed another suggestion that water diverted from the highest river be channeled into Qinghai Lake, the country's biggest saline lake. "Mixing fresh water with saline will cause serious chemical changes," Wang said.

Planned for completion in 2050, the south-north water project will eventually divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water annually to the population centers of the drier north.

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2009)


Nation won't divert Yarlung Tsangpo River to thirsty north -- china.org.cn

 

[Koji]

No problem. Two can play at that sh*t:


x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

India and China starts a Dams Race on the Brahmaputra River

Worried that China might build a very big dam on the Brahmaputra River near its borders, India has recently approved two big dams of their own, "in principle", on the same river downstream in its state of Arunachal Pradesh. What is interesting, and disturbing at the same time, is that India is building these dams to pre-empt China by establishing a prior use claim.


[...]

If India wants to build other dams downstream of the planned Chinese dam, what use would it do?

Also, If there is a serious consideration of the pre-emption law on behalf of the GOI, would India put up a serious effort to do so? I only ask because construction has already commenced on the Chinese side and I have not seen any plans on the Indian side besides talk.

 

[ShyAngel]

No problem. Two can play at that sh*t:


x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

India and China starts a Dams Race on the Brahmaputra River



[...]

You are god dham right ! he he he