Unfortunately, there is very little information about the protest. Both Tibetan language and English language sources use the same narrative about the incident with no specific information about the dam project. This leaves us wondering: how are so many Tibetans affected by a dam project? Which dam project is this? Here are my answers (please correct me if you think I am wrong):
It is the Lianghekou dam project (see copyright-free map below). The Lianghekou is a very large reservoir that will be built at the confluence of three rivers: Nyagchu (or Yalong), Qingda and Xianshui (does anyone know the Tibetan name for this river? Is it Dachu? Zhe Chu?). It is designed as one of the three regulatory reservoirs for 21 dams that are built/planned on the Nyagchu River by the Ertan Hydropower Development Company. According to information on company's website, the reservoir's capacity is 6.33 billion cubic meters, the second largest on the river. It is estimated that the reservoir will extend 90 km from the dam up the Nyagchu, 80 km up the Xianshui River approaching Tawu, and 28 km up the Qingda (see google earth image below).
[This map is copyright-free. Please use it!]
[Rough estimation of Lianghekou Reservoir extension according to altitude and distance. This is guesswork: do not use this image. Stay tuned. I will post more accurate information soon]
Who funds these dam projects?
Ertan Hydropower Development Company is jointly owned by China's State Development & Investment Corporation (48% of shares), the Sichuan Provincial Investment Group Co., Ltd. (48%), and China Huadian Corporation (4%). According to the General Manager Chen Yunhua, Ertan Hydroelectric Project was "the only project world-wide which received, as a single project, the biggest sum of loan (930 million USD equivalent) from the World Bank" (see p.5 of the link).
Is the project good for the local people, the economy or the environment?
Agriculture and pastoralism are the main livelihoods of the people in the region. The Lianghekou Reservoir will inundate most of the farms (agricultural fields) and villages within the area it will cover. The area is also famous for its forests and beautiful lakes. Below is a Google Earth image as an example of farmland and forest area near the Xianshui River that will be inundated by the reservoir. Marshall and Cooke has written about China's disturbing logging practices in the region, which probably continued until such practices were banned in the late 90's due to flooding downstream in the Yangtze River. I also found this essay about the region's wondrous beauty by a little girl from Kangding (Dartsedo) Middle School.
If the project is so bad for the local economy, the environment and the people, one has to ask why local authorities are so adamant about the project going ahead that they would shoot at protesters. What do you think?
5 comments:
Even though Ertan is funded by World Bank, but Lianghekou, as far as I know, is funded by state-owned commercial banks only, such as Bank of China.
Hello, it's good to know this. I had the same feeling. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts or any information in more detail. They are most welcome. Thanks again.
Much attention is rightly paid to big dams, but not all small hydro projects are eco-friendly. Try the remote Olka valley between Tsetang and Gyatsa in Googleearth.
go to 29.15.05,42 N, 92.12.31.12E with an eye alt (ie the +/- magnification) at about 4.2 km (the imagery date is Oct 26 2005).
Here you can see the riverside plant at Zanggacun (which may be the reported Tsangpo dam at Gyatsa) with a clear photo of the hydro entering the Tsangpo river.
Scroll upriver slowly ( ie north up the Olka not the Tsangpo), keeping the same eye alt, and you will see at least 6 hydro plants
quite clearly, even the water shoots are visible. Where the valley divides upstream, each valley has a dammed lake and generating plant. So the natural water courses in the entire valley have been altered with unknown but clearly dramatic impacts on the valley floor ecosystems.
I fear another recently announced project called Zangmu may be up the next large trib, near Dakla Gampo monastery,the Nangchu which drains from Lhamo Lhatso. Any other info/comments?
Hello Stone Route, thanks so much for your comment. I just wrote a brief post that shares the additional info I have about the 'Zangmu' project. Please continue to share info and questions. All the best!
just to keep things neat and tidy may I suggest that if anyone comments on my comment above about Olka, (which I would really like, especially if they have taken the recommended GE tour or visited the valley recently) then they do so on the Tsangpo blog in October.
It really belongs there and I would transfer if I knew how, but there is a link to here anyway.
Then all Tsangpo comment is in one place and this blog can be kept for it's original subject.
This kind of repeats what TPB says anyway but I thought I would put this in case anyone is as new to this as me
thanks
Stone Routes
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