Photo of dam on Indus (Senge Tsangpo)

A friend just sent me a link which has a photo of "The Sengye Tsangpo Hydropower Station." Upon comparing the photo with the dam on Ngari I found on Google Earth last week, it's clear that these are the same dam. According to the text on the photo, the Sengye Tsangpo Hydropower Station has an installed capacity of 6,400 Kilowatts and is now operational. Read more on this article...

The Qinghai Lake eco-environmental protection and comprehensive management project

Map source: QInghai Province website

In May 2008, the government of Qinghai Province launched the 10-year project to restore the ecological integrity of Lake Kokonor (called Tso Ngon by Tibetans, མཚོ་སྔོན་) region. Key environmental protection objectives include protection of wildlife biodiversity, wetlands and the grasslands of the region, which are believed to be threatened by global warming, desertification, human encroachment, over-grazing by yaks and sheep, and also by rodents and pests.

The project area is 30,000 square kilometers in size and comes with a promissory central government funding of $227 million. This project follows the example of a larger conservation project in the same province, the Three Rivers Headwaters Nature Reserve.

Measures to achieve project goals include planting trees and shrubs, controlling rodents and insect pests, and curtailing grazing on grasslands by fencing and "ecological migration" of nomadic herders living in the region.

Plantation of trees and shrubs sounds fine but I wonder what species of plants are being used and if these are sustainable considering local ecology.

Government measures to control rodents on the Tibetan Plateau have been controversial. The mainstream assumption of the government, supported by many local people, is that rodents, which have been found to be rapidly increasing in population, are causing grassland degradation and are competing for forage with livestock. The three main rodent species are plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae), voles (Microtus brandti), and zokors (Myospalax baileyi). The government has undertaken many poisoning campaigns to exterminate these little animals in the last few decades. The rodenticides not only killed target animals but also many other species of plants and animals.

In 1999, an important study was published in the journal of Animal Conservation by Andrew Smith and Mark Foggin that shattered the logic of this poisoning campaign. Smith and Foggin argued that the plateau pikas are a "keystone species" which provide essential ecosystem functions to the Tibetan Plateau. The animals are a major food source for wolves, brown bears and most of the large predatory birds of the plateau. The scientists also found that many nesting bird species use pika burrows as shelters for breeding. The increasing number of rodents on the Tibetan Plateau are a symptom, not a cause of environmental degradation.

Another important study by a team of scientists found that grazing is not the cause of rangeland degradation on the Tibetan Plateau but climate warming. Research experiments found that simulated grazing actually dampens loss of plant species diversity caused by climate warming. The team of scientists have also published an argument in the journal Ecological Applications.

There are a ton of studies that have looked at the implications of fencing of Tibetan rangelands. My advisor Tsering Shakya once told me that the academic/scientific consensus on the topic clearly show that the policy has been a disastrous failure. I have read reports from wildlife scientists such as the one here by noted biologist George Schaller who argue that fencing causes problems for many endangered animals such as the Tibetan Antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) and the Tibetan gazelle (Procapra przewalskii). These animals and the local people prefer their grasslands to be open without fences. This study, for example, indicates fencing actually exacerbating overgrazing and causing health problems among Tibetan pastoralist communities.

I think the most important perspective on this topic would be those of the nomads who are directly affected by the projects. My colleagues at TEAM will be interviewing some of these people. If anyone else have any information or insights to share, please let me know.

Before I end this blog, I want to mention about two earlier posts relating to the project area. One was about a government edict which admits there is a problem of illegal gold mining in the region. We also translated a news story about skirmish between nomads and fisherman near the lake.
Read more on this article...

Accuracy of Three Rivers Headwaters Nature Reserve Map

A friend just forwarded a link to Chinese language maps of Three Rivers Headwaters (San Jiang Yuan) Nature Reserve and "Qinghai Lake eco-environmental protection and comprehensive management project". This link is from the official website of Qinghai Province. Here is its SNNR map.




I am pleased to say that the map of SNNR confirms the accuracy of the SNNR map that was released on this blog last month (February 2009). Of course, our map provides more details, including demarcation of zoning systems within the subareas of the reserve.

I will post a separate blog about the map of Qinghai Lake eco-environmental protection and comprehensive management project" since this is the first time I am writing about it.
Read more on this article...

Pakistan shocked at Chinese dam on Indus River

I have heard word-of-mouth stories of a Chinese dam on the Tibetan headwaters of Indus River (Senge Khabab, སེང་གེ་ཁ་འབབ་) but never saw anything published about it. A news story from Pakistan confirmed the rumour today. I tried to locate the spot where the dam could be using Tibetan Himalayan Digital Library's handy mapping tool. Unfortunately the satellite imagery is not clear on close-up and the mapping system won't show rivers. So I drew a VERY rough blue line (took me few seconds on PhotoShop) on the map to show Indus headwaters. The dam is located near Ngari (མངའ་རིས་, called "Ali" in Chinese) township, circled in black, in Gar (སྒར་) county in Western Tibet.




I then checked on Google Earth, and guess what, the dam is clearly visible there. See a screen shot of GE image below. The dam is situated at 32 degrees and 31 minutes North latitude, and 80 degrees and 10 minutes East longitude. It is built on a tributary of Indus River, which flows from East to West joining the main (Indus) river at 32 degrees and 31 minutes North latitude, and 79 degrees and 42 minutes East longitude. The "city" on the left of the image is Ngari township.

Read more on this article...

China and the freedom of information

Tibet has been shut off from the rest of the world for about a month now. Even Tibetan language websites and blogs have been shut down "for maintenance". So the rest of the world is essentially dependent on Chinese state run news agencies such as Xinhua and People's Daily for news. The government can churn whatever information they want as "factual news" now. Independent (and all foreign) journalists have no access to Tibet. Interestingly, Chinese state media has reported several stories linking Tibetans and bombs in the last two weeks. Although these reports haven't produced any evidence or photographs, foreign media is quick to put their own spin to the stories.

How about environmental news from the rest of China? Surely, there is more freedom there. However, censorship is also widespread. Here is an interesting story from China Digital Times:


Guangdong Nansha integrated oil refinery and petrochemical project is a major inititiative, involving Kuwait National Oil Company and Guangdong Province. The project’s potential impact on the environment became a concern of not only the residents of Guangzhou, but also neighboring Hong Kong. On March 4, 2009, Hong Kong legislator Yu Ruohui raised this question, and the Director of the Environmental Protection Department in Hong Kong replied, saying, “As far as we understand, the impact assessment of the proposed project has yet to be approved.”

However, in the last few days, an internal notice from Internet supervision departments was sent to all major Chinese news websites, translated by CDT’s Japhet Weeks.

“Environmental impact report for the Guangdong Nansha integrated oil refinery and petrochemical project”: All internet sites are prohibited from reproducing, commenting on, or discussing anything relating to the content of this report. Nor should it be discussed on blogs. Furthermore, blogs should set up keyword filtering to make sure the topic isn’t discussed. All websites are requested to strictly implement these rules.

《广东南沙炼油化工一体化项目环境影响报告书》将于近日公示，公示期间，各网站对有关内容不转载、不报道、不评论，论坛、博客不讨论并设置关键词过滤。请各网站务必严格执行。
Read more on this article...

Grasslands of Bathang County unsafe for livestock due to mining

Bathang county (Tibetan: འབའ་ཐང་; Chinese: 巴塘县) gets its name from Tibetan, meaning the vast grassland where one can hear sheep everywhere. "Ba" refers to the sound made by sheep, and "Thang" means plains or grasslands (as in "Tsa-Thang"). However, Washington Post has published a story today that says that the grasslands are not safe for the sheep anymore due to gold and copper mining in the region. Here are two quotes from the article:

Their sheep die when they drink tainted water flowing from the mine, or lick crushed ore left on the hillside, villagers say. Now there are reports that the mine will open another cave this year in the upper grassland above Dorje's home. "We are trying to think of every possible way to stop this. If we have to, we will carry stones and wood sticks to block the entrance as soon as [the miners] begin to dig again," he said.

"Last year, eight of my yaks died. They just fell down, foaming at the mouth," said Gompo Dondrup, a nomad and farmer in Bathang county in western Sichuan province, whose family has lost more than 60 percent of its herd. "At first we didn't know why. Later, the veterinarians told us it was because of the mine. We protested, but the mine continues to operate. They said they gave compensation to the government, but the government never gave us any."

Read the full Washington Post article here .
Read more on this article...

A delightful surprise to the people of Phagri

People of Phagri (ཕག་རི་), near Shigatse (གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་), have some wonderful visitors this year. Xinhua reports that a flock of Black-necked Cranes have chosen Phagri, instead of their usual spot in Nyalam (གཉའ་ལམ་), as their resting site this winter.

[Photo: Xinhua]

The Black-necked Cranes, also known as Tibetan Crane (scientific name: Grus nigricollis), is well known among the Tibetans. Trung Trung Kenag (ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་སྐེ་ནག་), more popularly known as Trung Trung Karmo (ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་དཀར་མོ་ / "White Crane"), is a bird immortalized by what is believed to be the final and the most popular poem composed by the legendary sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (ཚངས་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ). A story goes that the poet Dalai Lama was sitting on a mountain top, looking for inspiration. Just then he saw a White Crane flying in the sky. He spontaneously broke into a song: "Oh White Crane, lend me your wings. I shall not fly far. From Lithang, I shall return."

The 6th Dalai Lama's last poem is believed to contain signs of his next life as the 7th Dalai Lama was born in Lithang. Here is a video of a man and a girl singing the song:


The Black-necked Crane is also popular among naturalists and environmentalists. According to the International Crane Foundation, Black-necked Cranes were the last species of crane discovered and described by ornithologists (1876). With a declining trend in its total population, which is only about 5,000-6000, the endangered Black-necked Crane is listed as "Vulnerable" in the IUCN Red List of endangered animals. The Black-necked grows to a height of about 4 feet (115cm) with an amazing wing span of nearly 8 feet (235 cm) and weighs about 12 pounds (5.5 kg).

Climate warming is known to drive animals and plants towards higher altitudes and latitudes (comparatively cooler regions) as temperature becomes too hot in their natural habitats. Migratory birds are worse off as these animals must travel long distances, covering different regions with very different environmental conditions. Related to the topic, BBC has produced a four-part documentary series called "Animal Migration in a Climate of Change" . As the Himalayas get warmer and the glaciers melt, the lakes and marshlands in areas around Phagri have become larger, and the surrounding meadows and shrubs have become greener. All these changes have made the area into an ideal winter hibernating site for the Black-necked Cranes, according to the Xinhua article.
Read more on this article...

Qinghai edict on the ban on mining of gold powder

While going through Tibetan language blogs, I came across a notice issued by the Qinghai Provincial Government on the ban on mining of gold powder. The blog was posted on January 30, 2009. I don't know when the edict was issued, nor have I seen the text of the original Chinese source. Some readers may still find the document of interest, so here are screen shots of the original document (only) along with an English translation of the text. This document proves that the government acknowledges there are mining problems in Qinghai, specifically in Drito and Zato counties of the Three Rivers Headwaters Nature Reserve. It is also interesting to note that mining (or collecting) gold powder is not banned completely. The ban is mainly for miners from other provinces.





Edict on the Ban on Mining of Gold Powder issued by the Qinghai Provincial Government

The ecological system of the Tibetan plateau is so fragile that it cannot be restored after it has been damaged. Therefore, in order to protect the natural environment around the [headwaters] of the three rivers and maintain sustainable development in the three river basins, the provincial Government of Qinghai has issued [the following] edict.

One
All the mining areas in the Dokha and Kyikha valleys of Padma county and Dzatod in the Khridu county run by prospectors from outside provinces should be closed immediately.

Two
The Forestry Department, Environmental Protection Bureau, Department of Animal Husbandry and Legal Department in different levels in the region must launch a campaign on the protection of the natural resources and promote awareness of environmental protection among the local people.

Three
All the local governments [are responsible for posting billboards about] environment protection along the highways.

Four
Town governments are responsible for preventing its people from digging gold powder and for providing advice and helping them to establish certain environmental protection regulations in accordance with their cultural tradition.

Five
Different levels of government in the region should actively engage with the protection task and not only lead the local people toward the path of economic development but also encourage them to enhance their living standard through greater agricultural and pastoral production as well as other small industries.

Six
Mining areas in Dokha and Kyikha of Padma County and Dzatod in Khritod county should be managed according to the environmental protection law designated by the regional government.

Seven
The legal branch offices responsible for natural resource management at different levels of government in the region must impose rules on the prevention of digging natural resources and those who violate the law should be punished according to the Management Regulation of Natural Resources of Qinghai Province and other regulations issued by the government.
Read more on this article...

Dams on Tibetan areas of Brahmaputra and Mekong

[photo: wikipedia]

1. Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo), one of the last two free-flowing, undammed major rivers in Tibet, AND China, is also being dammed. Salween is the other major river that environmentalists tried to save from dam projects but to no avail. A China Daily story yesterday acknowledged that the "Zangmu Water Power Station" is on the main stream of the middle reaches of Brahmaputra, at dZam (རྫམ་) township. Sources tell me that there are five dams planned in this section of the river, and construction has been going on since 2006. This means there is no undammed major river in China and Tibet. The installed capacity of 'Zangmu Water Power Station' will be 510 MW (85 MW x 6 turbines). The project is located in Lhokha (Shannan) Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region, about 140 km southeast from Lhasa, between Zangs-Ri (Sangri) and rGya-Tsha (Jiacha) counties. Construction work on the first dam is likely to start soon. Huaneng, China's top power company, is backing the financing of the project and, Gezhouba, one of China's biggest dam construction companies, will build the project. This news should be particularly alarming for people living in downstream countries of India and Bangladesh. China is likely to approve more dam projects on the Brahmaputra this year.

2. In March 2007, Tibet Environment Bureau approved another five dams on the headwaters of Mekong (Zachu) in Chamdo Prefecture. China has already built several dams on the Mekong in Yunnan Province that have impacted downsteam ecology and livelihoods. The Mekong River flows into Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. This time, however, authorities have released the Environmental Impact Assessment report of the Zachu dams. As far as I know, this is the first time China has released EIA of dam projects on transboundary rivers.

The total installed capacity of the five dams will be 510 MW. The names of five dams are (all in Chinese): Dhongzhong, Guoduo, Xiangda, Ruxi and Linchang. These dams are located close to each other, around 31 degree North latitude and 97 degree East longitude. This is a low population rural area at an altitude about 4,335 meters (14,225 feet). Dhongzhong and Guoduo are located near Tsher-dBad (ཚེར་དབད་ / Cerwai' in Pinyin) township, Xiangda is located near Re-Thong (རེ་ཐོང་ / Retong in Pinyin) township. Ruxi and Linchang are located near Ru-bZhi (རུ་བཞི་ / Ruxi in Pinyin) township.
Read more on this article...

Himalaya, the "Mountains of Concrete": a review

Mountains of Concrete: Dam Building in the Himalayas. International Rivers. 2008.  

Mountains of Concrete by Shripad Dharmadhikary is a fine new report that looks at dam building trends in the Himalayan regions of Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first critical report of its scope and focus, definitely an important contribution to the debates over dam building issues in the region. However, the exclusion of Tibetan Himalayan rivers renders this otherwise comprehensive regional study still incomplete, especially since the Tibetan sections of these rivers are the critical headwaters. The report explains that the omission is due to lack of information and resources. This is personally very disappointing as I believe the information and resources are out there, if only the author and the publisher had dug more deeply to find them.

The report, however, does dedicate a full-page story (Box #4, page 20): “China ‘Goes Out’ to Build Himalayan Dams.” It provides a brief overview of Chinese dam-building expertise and the politico-economic context under which it is ‘going out’ to build “hundreds of dams” in South Asia, Africa, South America, Central Asia and other regions of the world. In South Asia, the report says that “Chinese companies have built or are building at least 13 projects in Nepal and nine in Pakistan.” There is a quick mention of Chinese plans to build a dam on Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra), an idea that is alarming to the downstream countries of India and Bangladesh. Since Tibet is the headwaters to many of the major rivers discussed in the report and there are innumerable dams built and planned on the Tibetan Plateau, we can only hope that International Rivers will take up this incomplete project and produce a sequel report about Chinese dam projects in Tibet. Readers interested in getting a glimpse of Chinese dam-building trends on the Tibetan Plateau are encouraged to read this paper.

That said, I want to share some of the many excellent points that are discussed in the report and point out certain important topics that could have been been included. This 48-page report is neatly divided into different topical sections. The first half of the report presents an informative country-by-country discussion of dam-building trends, funding issues and the key players. I found the discussions about Nepal and Bhutan most informative since not much is known about dam issues in these two countries. I did not realize until today, and it is not very surprising as one comes to think of it, that hydropower development represents the biggest source of income for Nepal and Bhutan. According to the report, about half of Bhutan’s national income comes from hydropower development. Bhutan has an installed capacity of 1,448 MW and plans to increase it to 15,693 MW. Nepal is more ambitious, it plans to install a total capacity of 26,324 MW from its current installed capacity of 545 MW. India’s goal is 93,615 MW from 15,208 MW. And for Pakistan, it is 33,769 MW from the existing capacity of 6,385 MW.

The drivers of hydropower in Pakistan and India are different. Pakistan wants big dams for irrigation and agriculture. In India, there is much higher demand for electricity and regional development. Needless to mention, the Indian power companies' rush to earn huge profits is also a major factor. A look at sources of funds is also interesting. The involvement of international financial institutions (IFI) such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank are common throughout the region. For Bhutan, the main source of funds is India. Nepal has a more diverse source of income, including domestic sources, private-public partnerships, India as well as China. China is also an important funder for Pakistan. Other sources of funds for Pakistan include internal government sources, foreign private banks and income from sale of power. India’s main funders are its government, domestic banks and financial institutions.

Funding is the biggest challenge to the developers in this mostly rural region. Even if all the available funds are added up, the report estimates that 40% of the funds still remain unsecured. Power sector reforms to raise necessary funds are essentially geared towards privatization. The availability of funding is largely dependent on the ability of the power sector to recover investments, which to me is doubtful because of factors such as climate change, poor performance track record of big dams in general, and the South Asian context of corruption and unstable local/regional politics. However, I imagine the greatest funding problem right now is the global economic crisis as energy demands and investments in many parts of the world are declining. 

The main argument of the first section is the lack of morality in the economics of big dams in the region. Who are the ultimate winners and who are the losers? While the report does not question the role of state in hydropower development in the tradition of political ecology or post-structuralist critics, it raises issues of equity and the plight of the poor and affected people. The prospective winners are the banks and bureaucracies whose interests are directly proportional to the size of investment and prospective profits. The losers are the affected people, many of which are the many unique indigenous peoples (Adivasis, jan jatis), and the environment. In fact, the report is ultimately a warning that the Himalayas themselves and the whole region would face grave consequences if its people and decision-makers fail to act as its custodians.

The second half of the Concrete Mountains report is dedicated to the social and environmental issues. There are a lot of topics covered in this section (downstream impacts, loss of resource base, direct submergence, cultural impacts, ecological impacts, seismicity and sedimentation, climate change, etc.) that could have benefited from focus in terms of a specific target audience that ideally is also relevant to the debate. This section also provides a brief discussion on the response from affected people. I have always been most impressed with the various anti-dam movements in India. The national policy debates raised by the Narmada Bachao Andolan, and the mobilization of affected people’s resistance not only on the Narmada campaign but also other projects such as Teesta in the Northeast are inspiring examples for other dam-affected people. [TEAM has translated the Citizens’ Guide to World Commission on Dams, an activist organizational tool kit for people affected by dams, into Tibetan. We have sent a few copies to Teesta activists and are happy to send more copies for free to anyone who places an order.]

I am pleased that the report rightly situates the debate within the context of climate change. I believe climate change provides an important, pertinent and powerful critique of dam development in the region. If the glaciers and snows that feed the Himalayas are disappearing, why build such large, expensive and inhumane concrete structures? Some experts argue that big dams will be useful for storage purposes if climate change results in changes to water flow patterns. We can use the dams to store water when there is excess and release when supply is scarce. This report rejects this argument. Current dam projects, including those in the ‘pipeline,’ will not be able to deliver the designed benefits since flows are expected to decline significantly in the long run. Big dams in the Himalayas also increase other risks that are more common to the region such as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and seismicity.

Another important point that I was delightfully surprised to see emphasized in this report is the issue of cumulative impact of these dams. What will be the long term added incremental impact of all these dams to the region’s environment and economy? No one has the answer to this question. Perhaps we will never know the answer to this question beforehand but this is an important conceptual question for people and policy makers concerned about the future of the region’s cultural and ecological heritage. A step in the right direction toward understanding cumulative impact is to include cumulative impact assessments in project environmental impact assessment measures.

While such important points are raised in the report, there is no discussion of certain other relevant and important concepts such as minimum in-stream flows, ecosystem services (of headwaters and free flowing river, for example), and human rights impact assessment. I think all of these concepts should be made relevant to any discussion of dam project planning to minimize environmental and social costs. It would have been very fitting for the report to include these concepts as a part of its recommendations to governments and funders, a section that is also missing in the report. I would have either expanded the final one-page discussion on “Alternative Approaches” or included a set of recommendations for different target audiences, such as governments, IFIs, affected local people groups such as the Affected Citizens of Teesta.

It is unfair to expect a report to cover all relevant topics under the sun. For what it has set out to do, I think the report has achieved its purpose barring the unfortunate exclusion of Tibet and China. I wish to congratulate Shripad Sharmadhikary and the International Rivers for releasing this informative critical report.

Read more on this article...