These five dams are Zangmu (རྫམ་ or dzam), Jiacha (རྒྱ་ཚ་ or Gyatsa), Zhongda (སྒྲོམ་མདའ་ or Zhomda) and Lengda (གླིང་མདའ་ or Lingda), and Jiexu and Langzhen. Only Zangmu project is being built right now and others are in the project pipeline. I am unable to find the original Tibetan names for Jiexu and Langzhen so far. If any of the readers know the Tibetan names, please let me know. I used the Tibetan & Himalayan Library to find the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of Zangmu (29.14 and 92.52), Gyatsa (29.11 and 92.71) and Lingda (29.07 and 92.72) townships. Here is a Google Earth image of the location of these five dam sites.
You can use the coordinates at the bottom of the image or the inverted 'V' shape of the river on the right hand corner of the image to navigate approximate locations. Better still if you have good internet connection to browse Google Earth online, you can use this link prepared by Kevin Li of the International Rivers Network.
5 comments:
Thanks for replying so quickly. that was my first ever blog (if it was a blog) so apologies for names (I am used to interpreted Tibetan geography with a dozen different names and spellings from Wylie to Pinyin).
The Tsangpo schemes are less well known and for the moment I would concentrate on the Gyatsa and Zangmu ones.
Gyatsa on GE I make out to be 29.08.25 //92.34.71 where the county town can be plainly seen and the S306 road leaves the river for a high pass to the south, only rejoining the river much closer to Tsetang. Olka is in this roadless bit and the subject of my previous blog. I dont understand your map ref (even assuming the .71 is .51) as it appears to be in the mountains. Similar with Lingda.
Zangmu: the coordinates you give are also in the mountains between Dalha Gampo and Lhamo Lhatso. This actually is the valley system I am urgently concerned about (called the Nye by Victor Chan and Kingdon-Ward and Gyabpurong-chu by Gyurme Dorje 3rd ed p232). The Nangchu I mentioned earlier should have been Nye, sorry. This is the most beautiful valley in Kongpo where from a bowl of mountains, a steep valley of stunning bio-diversity (dwarf mountain oaks etc) leads down to the Tsangpo
It is my fear that some, if not all, of these Tsangpo hydro schemes are not whole of river dams across the Tsangpo but a series of smaller units up the side valleys.
I am also unsure of whether a whole of river Tsangpo dam is worse than the series of small hydros like those seen in GE for the Olka valley in my previous post. The smaller series up a side valley certainly has direct effect on more Tibetans and, I would argue, a much greater loss of ecosystems than the dusty barren steep Tsangpo.
Apologies for not awaiting a reply, but there are a couple of other points for your consideration.
I wish to clarify the location of these dams as much as possible. Are they simply mapped by name alone?
This seems fraught with danger as it appears the Pinyin names given to the three uppermost (Jiexu, Zangmu and Jiacha) do not correspond to any Pinyin names on maps I have seen. The Tibetan names obtained via the library thus might or might not give the correct location.
For Jiexu, located in a very steep part of the gorge with a near vertical cliff on the south, I cannot find on any Chinese map. Was the location for this made with information other than the name?
Zangmu is in a more accessible place (which should be visible from the s306 road, at least the approach road and possibly the dam itself) so information on construction could be obtained by anyone going along this road. How solid is the information about it's precise location and the information that construction has started? The only data I have is from news report, awarding the contract and some people who travelled down the river in 2007 (including the bit away from the road) and noted a dam in construction. BUT they do not mention the Olka scheme which has been further developed (maybe with a slipway canal from the Tsangpo) since the Googleearth photo and it is at least possible they mistook this for a whole of river Tsangpo scheme.
Gyatsa on all Pinyin maps at my disposal is either Gyatsa or Gyaca, so where does the spelling Jiacha come from and is it certain that the location of this dam is to be by the county town? The river is, for the Tsangpo, very placid here which makes me wonder.
Could these names simply refer to some unavailable Chinese map and have no relation to Tibetan places?
Finally do not any all-of-river dams require river diversion for a time, in a tunnel etc to allow construction? This would seem extremely difficult in the vertical cliff section, such as Jiexu?
Maybe this is not the place for this discussion, if so where is?
Best regards and thanks for providing a blog that gives info unavailable elsewhere
Stone Routes
Hello Stone Routes, thanks, I will get back to you on this after consulting my sources and doing some digging on my own. However, it will take some time as I am leaving out of country today. Thanks for your patience in advance.
China confirms building the dam by not saying it is not building it.
See “China Daily” article below.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-11/05/content_8920644.htm
Building dam will not hurt other nation's interests
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-05 19:43
BEIJING: China will not do anything that damages other nations' interests, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Thursday on reported dam construction across a river in Tibet.
"China is a responsible country and will not do anything to damage the interests of others." Ma said in a press briefing.
Indian media reported that China is building a dam on Yarlung Zangbu River (or Brahmaputra in India), which is one of Asia's largest rivers that traverses its first stretch of 1,625 km in China's Tibet region, the second 918 km in India and the remaining 363 km through Bangladesh before entering the Bay of Bengal.
If you want to look how the dam looks when finished go to the Chinese language website of Jiacha county:
http://www.xizangjiacha.gov.cn/html/tscy/2008-7/7/12_56_25_196.html
Wait some time until the animation at the top of the page is downloaded and becomes visible. You see the model of the dam as it will look in the year 2013. The writing in Chinese appearing at the same time means: “Zangmu water power station, the first dam on the Yarlung Tsampo”.
You also see Lhamo Latso, the other famous place in the same county. It is located about 40 kilometers NNE of the power station.
"These five dams are Zangmu (རྫམ་ or dzam), Jiacha (རྒྱ་ཚ་ or Gyatsa), Zhongda (སྒྲོམ་མདའ་ or Zhomda) and Lengda (གླིང་མདའ་ or Lingda), and Jiexu and Langzhen."
You are saying FIVE dams. But you are naming SIX dams.
1. Zangmu
2. Jiacha
3. Zhongda
4. Lengda
5. Jiexu
6. Langzhen.
Please clarify the matter.
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