China begins damming Brahmaputra
BEIJING, Nov 17 (bdnews24.com) — China has started damming the middle
reaches of the Brahmaputra River, or the Yarlung Tsangpo as it is
known in Tibet, to begin construction on a 510MW hydropower project
that has raised concerns in India.
The government for the first time revealed that it has, since November
8, begun damming the Tsangpo's flow to allow work to begin on the
hydropower project at Zangmu, reports The Hindu.
This is the first major dam on the Brahmaputra and has been billed by
the Chinese government as a landmark hydropower generation project for
Tibet's development.
A news report on Monday said the "closure of the Yarlung Zangbo River
on November 12 marked the beginning of construction." Work is expected
to continue beyond 2014, when the first set of generators will be put
into operation. The total investment in the project is 7.9 billion
yuan ($1.2 billion).
The Indian government has raised concerns about the possible
downstream impact of this project during talks with China earlier this
year. Chinese officials have assured their Indian counterparts that
the project would be "run of the river," having little impact
downstream.
China has said that its projects were only for hydropower generation,
and were neither storage projects nor designed to divert the water.
Officials at India's Ministry of External Affairs have, however,
voiced frustration over China's general lack of willingness to share
information regarding the Zangmu project, meaning they had little
means to verify claims on the specific construction plans and impact
on flows.
According to Ramaswamy R. Iyer, former Water Resources Secretary of
the Government of India, for India "the point to examine would be the
quantum of possible diversion and the impact it would have on the
flows to India."
Usually, to ensure that the flow downstream remains unaffected during
the period of construction of a dam, the water is diverted through
streams around the construction site and returned to the river.
"Since the flow of the water cannot be stopped, the water will be
diverted so there will be no reduction of flow in this stage," Mr
Iyer, who is an authority on dams and transboundary water issues, told
The Hindu on Monday, speaking from New Delhi.
He stressed that he was speaking in general terms regarding any dam
construction, and did not have specific details regarding how China
was carrying out this particular project.
There is still some uncertainty on what China intends for the project,
and whether or not a storage reservoir, which could affect downstream
flows, will be built beyond the minimal "pondage" required to operate
the turbines.
Chinese media reports indicated that the Zangmu project is unlikely to
be the last on the Brahmaputra. A news report on the widely read
portal Tencent said the Zangmu dam was "a landmark project" for
Tibet's development, being the first major dam in Tibet, and "a
project of priority in the Eleventh Five Year Plan."
The report said that such projects would "greatly relieve the energy
stress in the middle regions of Tibet" and upgrade power capacity from
100 MW to over 500 MW.
'NO TREATY'
Mr Iyer said a larger concern for India was the absence of a
water-sharing treaty with China, which does not allow India to either
qualify or address Chinese claims regarding specific projects.
"Between India and Pakistan, we have a treaty which specifies what we
should do," he said. "We're not supposed to retain a drop, and [even]
during a stated period of construction, inflow is equal to outflow."
"But with China," he added, "we have no treaty. So what they will do,
we have no idea."
http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=179138&cid=2
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