Mas ao apropriar-se, manu
militari, da água do Tibete, a China cria tensões insuportáveis com 11 Estados
do leste da Ásia que também dependem dessa água... O australiano “The
Diplomat” investigou a ameaçadora e explosiva matéria que, em seguida, o
francês Courier
International retomou em síntese e que agora aqui, pela sua decisiva
importância estratégica, se regista.
A China e os insustentáveis problemas da água do Tibete.
Tibet’s
Rivers Will Determine Asia’s Future
At the dawn of a new era
of building dams on the Yarlung Tsangpo, countless lives and ecosystems are
being risked in the name of “development” and geopolitics.
By Dechen Palmo | The Diplomat | November
01, 2019
Over the last seven
decades, the People’s Republic of China has constructed more than 87,000 dams.
Collectively they generate 352.26 GW of power, more than the capacities of Brazil, the United
States, and Canada combined. On the other hand, these projects have led to the
displacement of over 23 million people.
The Tibetan plateau is a rich repository of
indispensable freshwater resources that are shared across Asia. After damming
most of its rivers, China is now casting its eyes on the major international
rivers flowing out from the Tibetan plateau, heralding a new era of damming
Tibet’s rivers.
Tibet, known as the “Water Tower of Asia,” serves as
the source of 10 major Asian river systems flowing into 10 countries, including
many of the most densely populated nations in the world: China, India, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Pakistan.
China, through its political control over Tibet, has
complete upper riparian control over all major rivers flowing out of the
Tibetan plateau. Compared to China, Tibet remains a virgin territory with less
than 0.6 percent of its hydropower resources being utilized for
developmental purposes. But this is changing rapidly. As China seeks to meet
its renewable energy targets, Beijing will have to harness yet more hydropower.
Chinese hydropower and energy companies have been lobbying the government to
allow more hydropower projects to tap into Tibet’s fast-flowing rivers, with as
many as 28 proposals awaiting approval.
Tibet is a geologically unstable region with an
average elevation of 4,500 meters above sea level (14,800 feet). Despite
the critical state of the Tibetan
plateau which remains ecologically sensitive and seismically active, China is
still moving on with its ambitious plan to expand the hydropower generation on
the headwaters of Asia’s major rivers — the Yangtze, Yellow, Brahmaputra,
Indus, Mekong, and Salween Rivers.
China’s State Council’s energy plan for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) and 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) confirm the government’s
intentions to vigorously push forward the hydropower project on the Tibetan
plateau. Hydropower is being promoted as the centerpiece of China’s plan to
expand its renewable energy sector. By 2020, China wants to triple its
hydropower capacity to 300 GW. Therefore it is increasingly damming
transboundary rivers to achieve its hydropower targets.
The Brahmaputra, know as the Yarlung Tsangpo in
Tibetan, is a major international river shared between Tibet, India, and
Bangladesh. It stretches over a total length of 1,800 miles (2,900 km) from
west to east, starting on the Tibetan plateau from its source, the
Chemayungdung glaciers near the sacred Mount Kailash.
Once a free-flowing river, it is now dammed on every
section. Starting from Zangmu hydroelectric power station, there has been a
cascade of dams being built on the Brahmaputra. Geologist Yang Yong had rightly said
that the activity represents “the start of a hydropower era for Tibet’s
rivers.”
In January 2013, China approved three dam projects on
the Brahmaputra River as part of its 12th Five-Year Plan, which triggered
concerns in the Indian media about the possible
impact on downstream flows. In an attempt to downplay India’s concern over
these matters, the Chinese government was quick to assure
India that the project will be planned and reasoned scientifically. It
maintained that the project was a Run-of-River (ROR) hydroelectricity
generation project – meaning a part of the river was being diverted to run past
electricity generating turbines, and then the water would flow back to join the
river. Such a ROR project would, according to that argument, not reduce the
water flow and not have any impact downstream.
These assertions are largely untrue. Instead, ROR
projects require storing large volumes of water during the day, only to be
released all at once in the evening for generating power during peak energy
demand. These daily fluctuations in the river cause an incredible disruption to
the river ecology. Moreover, large dams also increase the probabilities of
earthquakes, destroy precious environments, and shatter the lives of millions
of people who are dependent on the Brahmaputra River.
Rather than benefiting populations with non-polluting
power, China’s dam builders are making a
Faustian bargain with nature, selling Tibet’s soul in their drive for economic
growth. Taken together there is much scientific evidence that dams are not
the clean, green, or cheap source of electric power they are often made out to
be.
It is no surprise that China has begun the
construction of three hydropower dams (Dagu, Jiexu, and Jiacha) on the middle
reaches of the Brahmaputra. The Dagu (660 MW) and Jiexu (560 MW) dams are
being constructed upstream of Zangmu and the Jiacha dam (320 MW) downstream of
Zangmu — all located within a few kilometers from each other.
The Zangmu hydropower station (510 MW) is
only the start. China plans to build 11 hydropower stations on the Brahmaputra
mainstream and several on its tributaries. Huaneng, Huadian, Guodian and Datang
— four major power generation groups — have already taken root in Tibet. Among
them, Huaneng is the largest hydropower development in the Tibet
Autonomous Region (TAR).
Huaneng Tibet Power Generation Co. Ltd. (HTPG), a
subsidiary of the state-owned China Huaneng Group, has signed multiple
agreements with the TAR government regarding the development of clean energy in
the region. According to the agreements between the company and the regional
government, Huaneng’s installed capacity
in Tibet will reach 10,000 megawatts by 2020. It is believed that hydropower
resources in the TAR account for 29 percent of the national total.
According to the plan, Huaneng Group is responsible
for the development of the Jiexu and Jiacha hydropower stations whereas Dagu
was constructed by Huadian group.
In addition, the Bayu hydropower station began its
survey in November last year. The installed capacity of that power station is
800 MW.
From time to time, whenever water issues such as
floods and other disasters occur in the region, India raises its concerns to
Chinese counterparts. Those concerns are met with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) or Expert
Level Mechanism (ELM), which remains nonbinding and without any governing body
that ensures their implementation.
China has so far not communicated officially about the
construction of these dams on the Brahmaputra. A lack of transparency about dam
building on the Tibetan river raises questions about whether the Tibetan people
and the downstream countries were fully informed about the risk and impacts on
a river system that supports millions.
These proposed dams will pose a serious ecological
threat not only to the Tibetan plateau but also to the other side of the
border. China, by constructing these dams, will be responsible for the
overexploitation of the river, which can jeopardize the river ecosystem as well
as alter water flows downstream, affecting the farmers and fishermen of India
and Bangladesh.
Moreover, China can also easily manipulate the river
flow, which puts India at a strategically disadvantageous position. It is high
time for India to take a stand in order to ascertain their user rights on the
river and monitor those dam activities on the upper part of the Brahmaputra
River.
The environmental health of the Tibetan plateau is
critical for around 1.3 billion people who live in the river basins downstream
in Asia. The Tibetan river shouldn’t be seen only as a source of hydropower;
its geological significance should also be taken into serious consideration.
Dechen Palmo is a research fellow at the Tibet
Policy Institute. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of
the Tibet Policy Institute.
Géopolitique:
Le Tibet, un château d’eau contrôlé par la Chine
Les principaux fleuves qui alimentent le nord de
l’Inde et l’Asie du sud-est prennent leur source dans le plateau
tibétain. En construisant des barrages dans la région, la Chine met sous
pression les pays en aval. Et
menace la survie de millions de personnes.
“Au cours des sept dernières décennies, la République populaire de Chine
a construit plus de 87 000 barrages. Collectivement,
ils produisent 352,26 gigawatts d’électricité, plus que les
capacités du Brésil, des États-Unis et du Canada réunies”, indique le
journal en ligne australien The Diplomat.
Et le plateau tibétain n’a pas été épargné par le programme
hydroélectrique chinois. Ce “château d’eau de l’Asie” est à l’origine de neuf
grands réseaux fluviaux asiatiques coulant dans onze pays (Chine, Inde,
Vietnam, Cambodge, Laos, Thaïlande, Birmanie, Bangladesh, Népal, Bhoutan et
Pakistan). En contrôlant le débit des fleuves issus du
plateau tibétain, la Chine est en position de force sur les pays riverains. Une
source de tensions pour toute l’Asie orientale.
À LIRE AUSSI Submersion. Le delta du
Mékong est menacé de disparition
“Des pêcheurs du nord-est de la Thaïlande ont vu leur nombre de prises
dans le Mékong chuter, et des agriculteurs vietnamiens et cambodgiens ont dû
aller chercher du travail en ville, leurs récoltes ayant diminué. Le
point commun : les niveaux d’eau irréguliers le long de la troisième plus
longue voie navigable d’Asie”, rapporte le
site d’information hongkongais Inkstone.
“Des ONG affirment
que les onze barrages hydroélectriques de la partie chinoise du fleuve, dont
cinq ont commencé à fonctionner au cours des trois dernières années, ont
perturbé les rythmes saisonniers. Cela menace la sécurité alimentaire de plus
de 60 millions
de personnes qui dépendent du fleuve pour leur subsistance”, précise
le site.
