China gives go-ahead for three new Brahmaputra dams

[Kshatriya87]

Be ready for flash floods.

 

[sgarg]

They are daring India.

They wish to keep india busy on many fronts and then quitely achieve the objective of taking away the Brahmaputra water to China.

Smart eh!

But not so smart, as India is no longer ruled by non performing party. These dams and railway line become the prime objective of Tibetean upsurge, as they do not wish their water to China. All india got to do is to encourage them.

I have not seen any military action taken by India on account of these dams.

Chinese have too much surplus money. They have to use someplace.

Some of these projects are uneconomical and some are illogical. China is on a construction spree so we shall more of these.

Best course for India is to ignore, and make military plans which take flooding of Brahmputra into account.

 

[amoy]

Sichuan-Tibet power grid project has been completed on 20th Nov. 2014

Previous reports - Sichuan-Tibet power grid project to be completed in 2014 - CCTV News - CCTV.com English with a video[/B] clip
Sichuan-Tibet Power Network to conclude in 2014 -- Chinatibetnews.com

Sichuan-Tibet Electricity Network, with a total length of 1,500 kilometers, passes the Jinsha River, Dachu River as well as the dense forest, is a significant transmission and transformation project constructed on the cold and high plateau after the Qinghai-Tibet Electricity Network.

In addition to the existing transformer substations along the network, 4 new substations are respectively planned to be built in Paltang, Chamdo, Pangda and Yilung. Dynamic storage investment of this project has reached 6.7 billion yuan RMB (1.1 billion US dollars) The main structures have basically concluded recently, the project will be finished by the end of 2014.

 

[sgarg]

We understand that China has consolidated its grip on Tibet. India has NO DESIRE to go to war over Tibet. Period.

So China can build as many dams as it wants on Brahmputra.

What these dams do to Tibetans or deserts is an issue that does not bother us.

The issue that bothers us is the flow of water downstream.

Any behaviour of China that is unfriendly to neighbours is unlikely to raise China's esteem.

The flash flood issue has been discussed is strategic community and India will take actions to deal with the issue - mainly to protect military assets.

 

[brational]

We understand that China has consolidated its grip on Tibet. India has NO DESIRE to go to war over Tibet. Period.

So China can build as many dams as it wants on Brahmputra.

What these dams do to Tibetans or deserts is an issue that does not bother us.

The issue that bothers us is the flow of water downstream.

Any behaviour of China that is unfriendly to neighbours is unlikely to raise China's esteem.

The flash flood issue has been discussed is strategic community and India will take actions to deal with the issue - mainly to protect military assets.

You need to know that in NE Flash flood is not a military issue, it seems you are concerned with the protection of Military Assets than the lives of everything that lies in Assam. Let me give you an Idea, it is not the flash flood, that is the cause of concern, it is the frequency of it. Arunachal Pradesh is a Hill state and I have not come across of any flash flood in Arunachal Pradesh. In the contrary, Assam lies on the flood plains of Brahmaputra and during monsoon a huge part of Assam remains inundated by Brahmaputra. People are used to it and hence they remain prepared for this event during monsoons. But these dams will create havoc all across the year. It can damage miles of crops during any period of time.

NE is not a military Zone and not a single Military Asset is located on the flood plains. It is the Livestock and the farmers who are going to face the flashflood fury.

 

[amoy]

Diversion of some of Yarlung Zangbo water to drought smitten Xinjiang by the electricity these dams generate will spare Assamese flash floods during monsoons - https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4349

The zeal for engineering China's rivers continues unabated among hydrologists. But will the latest proposal – to move water from Tibet to Xinjiang – get the backing of the authorities? Zhang Ke reports.

Chinese scientists have dreamed up yet another mega engineering scheme: to divert water from Tibet's Yarlung Zangbo River, along a course that follows the Tibet-Qinghai railway line to Golmud, through the Gansu Corridor and, finally, to Xinjiang, in north-west China.

The man behind the proposal is Wang Guangqian, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of Tsinghua University's State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering. Although the Ministry of Water Resources has not given its support to the scheme, Wang insists it is "feasible".

On June 3, Wang revealed that the authorities are considering a water-diversion plan for western China. He told reporters that, the previous day, Li Ruihuan – former member of the standing committee of the Political Bureau and chair of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – had gathered Wang and others together to give and listen to presentations on the proposal. He said that everyone there was in agreement: "It is time for a water-diversion project in western China."

It has previously been suggested that such a project could move 200 billion cubic metres of water a year – the equivalent of four Yellow Rivers. It would require core project finance of more than 200 billion yuan (US$30.9 billion) and be "an unprecedented undertaking in the history of the Chinese people."

As to why it's necessary, Wang explained that water usage has dramatically increased as a result of social and economic development on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River. Climate change and other factors are driving desertification, while water coming from the upper reaches of those rivers is decreasing (for more information on threats to the quality and supply of water in this region posed by factors including glacier-melt in the Himalayas, see chinadialogue's report "The Waters of the Third Pole: Sources of Threat, Sources of Survival"). A survey by the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Institute found that, since the 1980s, the quantity of water flowing from the Yellow River above the city of Lanzhou, in north-western China, has fallen by an average of 13% a year. In 2002, it dropped 46%.

In addition, grain-growing regions such as Henan in central China and Xinjiang in the north-west rely on large quantities of groundwater. To date, almost all major cities in a region bounded by Harbin to the north, Urumqi to the north-west, Shanghai to the east and Haikou to the south, have experienced subsidence due to groundwater extraction. "There's no way that situation is sustainable," said Wang. "But there is still potential to exploit the more plentiful water resources of the south-west."

Figures from the Chinese Academy of Sciences show that rivers on the Qinghai-Tibet and Yunnan-Guizhou plateaus, including the Yarlung Zangbo, Nu and Lancang, carry between 637 billion cubic metres and 810 billion cubic metres of water out of China each year. Because little of the water in these rivers is used within China's borders, most of it flows on to India and south-east Asia – where they become the Brahmaputra, Salween and Mekong, respectively.

Wang's proposal is distinct from the South-North Water Transfer Project, another mega infrastructure scheme approved by the State Council in December 2002. Under that plan, a "western route" would "bring water from the Tongtian, Yalong and Dadu tributaries of the upper Yangtze to the Yellow River," in order to relieve water shortages in the regions of Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia.

However, I understand from the State Council's South-North Water Transfer project office that, so far, no concrete plans have been formulated for the western route. Speaking at a party meeting on May 13, the head of that office, E Jingping, said: "There is currently a significant gap between preliminary work being done on the project and actual requirements. In particular, much more work is needed to explain the necessity, importance and feasibility of the project in the context of national sustainable development."

Wang Guangqian stated that the idea for his proposal – dubbed the Major Western Route – came from independent water-resources expert Guo Kai, and has many supporters. "Everybody gets really excited when they hear about it," he said.

Guo Kai told me the project name was originally chosen to distinguish the scheme from the western route of the South-North Water Transfer project. He came up with the idea as early as 1990: take 201 billion cubic metres of water every year from the Yarlung Zangbo, divert it through the Nu, Nancang, Jinsha, Yalong and Dadu rivers, over the Aba watershed and into the Yellow River. Guo believes this project would not only ease water shortages in the north of China, but also transform desert landscapes, increase farmland, provide power and create jobs.

"It would only take five to eight years to build, and cost 225 billion yuan [US$34.7 billion] in 1997 terms," Guo said, adding that the Yarlung Zangbo, Nu River and Lancang River are capable of providing some 380 billion cubic metres of water annually – more than enough to cover the 206 billion cubic metres required each year by the project.

Li believes that the technological and engineering experience gained from constructing the Qinghai-Tibet railway – which involved challenges such as building on permafrost and working for many years in low-oxygen environments and environmentally vulnerable regions – will help to solve many of the problems presented by the Major Western Route. Building the railway cost 2 billion yuan (US$308 million) in environmental protection alone.

 

[sgarg]

@brational, we need to be rational. Can you list the incidents of flash floods due to these dams??

 

[brational]

@sgarg
I believe there were no such flash floods caused by these dams so far(No reports in media or govt. sources) but one can not rule out the possibilities. Till date floods in Assam are of Routine nature i.e during monsoon.

The impact of these dams -

1. At least 50% reduction in flow during Winter-Spring
2. Ecology Damage - Threat to river dolphins and other fishes. Water plants and peats are drying up, hence threat to food cycle. Impact on evergreen forests in Assam/Arunachal Pradesh

these are two immediate effects.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Yarlung Tsangpo/siang is not the only water source of Brahmaputra. Northeastern region will never turn into desert, yes the existing dams on tsangpo already caused waterflow during winter to spring as the river stopped getting glacier feed of tibet and the river ecology in stake.

The current situation is also attributed by the anti dam protests by locals on Siang river where India eventually lost the first right on water. Flash floods will occur more frequently than ever with new dams in Tibet.

Bangladesh may feel the heat in future if india control the flow of the river during winter-spring season.

This will not be only dams on the bhramaputra, droughts will be the norm .

 

[brational]

This will not be only dams on the bhramaputra, droughts will be the norm .

Please share your thoughts

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Please share your thoughts

These dams will be a disaster for north east india and Bangladesh. I do not see
The flooding excuse to justify them. This is plain simple theft of water.

 

[brational]

These dams will be a disaster for north east india and Bangladesh. I do not see
The flooding excuse to justify them. This is plain simple theft of water.

True.. The water that flow from Kailash brings in Minerals and greater amount of Oxygen to sustain the River Ecology. The reduced flow during spring season will somehow create draught like situation which is against long term sustainability of soil quality and further decrease in ground water level.

The bigger problem is deforestation leading to deficit rainfall, reduced moisture in the atmosphere. Destruction has started and it will take a toll on entire life support system around Brahmaputra valley.

China's planners are failing to understand this. Snowfall in the eastern Himalaya has reduced drastically in previous years and Water scarcity will make their HEP Projects a costly affair. Bangladesh as an end receiver going to become desert in a very short period of time and Bangladeshi migration to NE will grow many folds.

We can not do anything in this regard. China looks the Indian protests in Strategic angles.

 

[amoy]

New milestone for water project | Shanghai Daily

Workers check a piece of equipment at the Huinanzhuang pump station in Beijing in this October 25 file photo. The station is where water transported via the south-to-north diversion project enters the nation's capital. A key section of the 500 billion yuan (US$80.1 billion) scheme was officially opened yesterday. It will supply 9.5 billion cubic meters of water a year to northern regions. — Xinhua

CHINA yesterday opened a key section of a massive and ambitious plan to transport water from wetter central and southern parts of the country to its arid north, including the capital Beijing.

The 500 billion yuan (US$80.1 billion) undertaking — dreamed up by former Chairman Mao Zedong in the 1950s — is designed to supply China's parched and pollution-ridden north, which is home to more than 300 million people and countless water-intensive businesses.

The latest section to open runs 1,432 kilometers from Danjiangkou Reservoir in central China's Hubei Province, Xinhua news agency reported.

It can supply an average of 9.5 billion cubic meters of water a year to about 100 million people in places like Beijing, Tianjin and nearby provinces of Henan and Hebei, the report said.

Some provinces in northern China have less freshwater per person than the desert countries of the Middle East.

Of the country's total, water-intensive industries such as clothing and electronics manufacturing consume a quarter — a share the think tank 2030 Water Resources Group expects to grow to a third by 2030.

The first stage of China's south-to-north transfer brought water to the industry-heavy northeast, but it was barely usable when it reached Tianjin because it picked up pollutants and sediment while flowing north through polluted soil.

That has raised concerns about the latest phase — a decade in the making — bringing water via a less polluted route. Some experts have also voiced concern that the project's extensive tapping of water from the Yangtze River and its tributaries may damage one of China's most important waterways.

The project started with the construction of the eastern route in 2002 and the middle route in 2003, while the western route is in its pre-construction stage.

The middle route, which opened yesterday, has grabbed the most attention due to its role in feeding water to the capital.

Once completed, the entire project, which has created about 600,000 jobs, is expected to divert up to 44.8 billion cubic meters of water a year to more than 10 provinces and cities.

TIMELINE

October 1952 — the idea of diverting water from the resource-abundant south to the north is envisioned by Chairman Mao Zedong.

June 5, 2000 — after decades of research and discussion, the south-to-north water diversion project is set to include three routes — eastern, middle and western — to take water from the Yangtze.

December 23, 2002 — the project is officially approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet.

December 27, 2002 — construction of the eastern route of the world's largest water diversion project begins in Shandong and Jiangsu.

December 30, 2003 — construction of the first phase of the middle route begins.

September 26, 2005 — a project begins to heighten the dams of the Danjiangkou Reservoir so as to expand the storage capacity of the water source of the middle route.

February 26, 2009 — major work on the middle route involving seven provinces gets under way.

March 31, 2010 — all 54 dams of Danjiangkou Reservoir are raised to their highest level, from 14.6 meters to 176.6m, to shore up to 29 billion cubic meters of water from rivers including the Hanjiang, a major tributary of the Yangtze.

September 2012 — relocation of residents near the Danjiangkou Reservoir area is completed.

December 25, 2013 — main work on the middle route is completed.

 

[amoy]

Tibet dams river for its costliest hydro project
2016-10-01

Tibet on Friday blocked a tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo River as part of its most expensive hydro project.

The Lalho project on the Xiabuqu River in Xigaze, involves an investment of 4.95 billion yuan (740 million U.S. dollars), said Zhang Yunbao, head of the project's administration bureau.

The project was scheduled to be completed in 2019. Construction began in June 2014.

The project serves multiple purposes, including irrigation, flood control and power generation, said Zhang.

Its reservoir was designed to store up to 295 million cubic meters of water and helps irrigate 30,000 hectares of farmland.

The farming area, which usually suffers from severe drought, is a major crop production base in Xigaze.

The project will have two power stations with a combined generation capacity of 42 megawatts. They are designed to generate 85 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year.

http://m.eng.tibet.cn/wap/china/1475252927366.shtml

 

[tarunraju]

What an exaggeration! The dam for power generation doesn't stop the water flowing downstream.

But of course it can turn out to be an WMD if India keeps on needling China!

Practically the water can be pumped by the hydro-power produced itself to arid western China like Xinjiang + Gansu to irrigate gobi into oasis. That'd be an accomplishment for mankind.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2014-11/23/c_133808455_5.htm
Water is discharged from the dam of Zangmu Hydropower Station in Gyaca County, Shannan Prefecture, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Nov. 22, 2014. This Tibet's largest hydropower station became partly operational on Sunday, harnessing the rich water resources of the Yarlung Zangbo River to empower the development of the electricity-strapped region.

We all know in the era of thermobaric bombs and tactical nukes, dams cannot be used as WMDs.

 

[SexyChineseLady]

It's on Chinese land. Chinese should be able do whatever they want to it!

 

[DingDong]

It's on Chinese land. Chinese should be able do whatever they want to it!

Just like Chinese Engineers in Balochistan are being culled like dogs and pigs? It is their land, they can do anything to the Chinese.

 

[aditya10r]

Just like Chinese Engineers in Balochistan are being culled like dogs and pigs? It is their land, they can do anything to the Chinese.

 

[SexyChineseLady]

That's silly, building a dam is not killing people. But I guess the Balochs have a point. But so do the Kashmiris and Assamese you, know

 

[Bahamut]

It's on Chinese land. Chinese should be able do whatever they want to it!

No stopping the flow in such a way is indirect declaration of war, in such case where river cross border, there is a metal agreement of how much each country can use. Plus what China wants the dam is for electricity not for water, in such case dam for storage of water are not build.