Within the foothills of the Himalayas, the place the traditional Yarlung civilisation established the primary Tibetan Empire, China has plans to construct the world’s largest hydroelectric dam.
In November of final yr, China’s state-owned media shared plans for a 60-gigawatt mega-dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo river within the Tibetan Autonomous Area (TAR).
Now with the purpose of attaining carbon neutrality by 2060, Beijing has redoubled its efforts on its hydropower initiatives in Tibet, although the dams have drawn criticism from Tibetan rights teams and environmentalists.
Tenzin Dolmey has by no means stepped foot on the Tibetan Plateau, however she was introduced up with the tales of the nice rivers and mountains, which kind her ancestral dwelling.
“Respect for nature is so deep-rooted,” mentioned Dolmey, who was introduced up amongst Tibetan exiles in India and now teaches Tibetan language and tradition in Melbourne, Australia’s second-biggest metropolis.
“Once we would swim within the rivers, we have been instructed to by no means use it as a toilet, as a result of there are river gods within the water.”
The Yarlung Tsangpo is of explicit significance, because it represents the physique of the goddess Dorje Phagmo, one of many highest incarnations in Tibetan tradition.
Tempa Gyaltsen Zamlha, the top of Atmosphere and Growth on the Tibetan Coverage Institute, says this reverence for the pure world was born from the Tibetan Plateau’s distinctive panorama and dates again centuries.
However since China, managed by the Communist Celebration (CCP), annexed Tibet in 1950, Zamlha says Tibetans have misplaced all say in what occurs on their land.
“We had completely no dams earlier than Chinese language occupation, not as a result of we weren’t in a position to harness it, however as a result of we had immense respect for the character of the rivers,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
“There’s a really strict custom that nobody will go close to sure streams or do something that will disturb it. You don’t even want legal guidelines – each Tibetan abides by it.
“The Chinese language will do something to learn their development and that is very irritating as a result of Tibetans will not be consulted.”
World’s highest river
From its origin within the glaciers of western Tibet, the Yarlung Tsangpo reaches heights of almost 5,000 metres (16,404 ft) above sea stage, making it the very best river on this planet because it snakes its means by the Himalayan mountain vary.
The river plunges 2,700 metres (8,858 ft) by what is called the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, forming a gorge greater than twice the depth of the Grand Canyon in america.
The precipitous fall makes it notably conducive to gathering hydroelectric energy however specialists have warned the record-breaking dam is more likely to have political and environmental penalties.
In keeping with the Energy Building Corp of China’s chairman, Yan Zhiyong, the mega-dam’s has primarily been constructed to energy China’s inexperienced future.
Whereas China already has an extra of power, Brian Eyler, an skilled in rivers who’s the director of the South East Asia Program on the Stimson Heart, says the ability generated will in all probability be used to cowl losses because it makes the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner power.
The mega-dam might produce as a lot as 3 times the hydroelectric energy of China’s present largest dam, the Three Gorges, a mission which pressured the relocation of greater than 1.4 million individuals.
The areas surrounding the Yarlung Tsangpo are much less densely populated than the Yangtze River.
However there’s a precedent for the relocation of the native residents to make means for dam initiatives on the Yarlung Tsangpo, with native media reporting almost 2,000 individuals have been moved for the development of the Yagen Hydropower Station in 2015.
In keeping with the state-backed World Occasions newspaper, the Yarlung Tsangpo dam will probably be in-built Medog County, which has a inhabitants of 14,000 individuals.
Al Jazeera approached the Energy Building Corp of China for touch upon the quantity of people that will probably be affected by the Yarlung Tsangpo dam however didn’t obtain a reply.
Geopolitical significance
Unfold throughout 2.5 million sq. kilometres (8.2 million sq. miles), the Tibetan Plateau is wealthy in pure assets and borders a number of different nations.
The freshwater runoff, which comes from melting glaciers and mountain springs, flows down by the Himalayan watershed and supplies ingesting water to an estimated 1.8 billion individuals in international locations together with China, India and Bhutan.
Zamlha believes Tibet’s assets such because the Yarlung Tsangpo and Mekong rivers have been a key issue within the CCP’s choice to take management of Tibet greater than 70 years in the past.
These geopolitical components have been introduced into sharp focus final yr following a dispute within the western Himalayas between India and China, through which 20 Indian troops and an unknown variety of Chinese language have been killed. It emerged final month that troopers had brawled once more alongside their shared border.
After leaving China, the Yarlung Tsangpo flows into Bangladesh and the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, the place the river is known as the Brahmaputra.
With the proposed mega-dam sited simply 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Indian border, Zamlha believes the CCP will “undoubtedly attempt to use it as a political instrument”.
A spokesperson for India’s ministry answerable for managing its water assets mentioned it will reply with a 10-gigawatt mission on one other tributary of the Brahmaputra.
Sensing the potential for battle, america has tried to prod the 2 sides into resource-sharing.
The Tibet Coverage and Assist Act, just lately signed into legislation by Congress, outlined a dedication to: “encourage a regional framework on water safety… to facilitate cooperative agreements amongst all riparian nations … on the Tibetan Plateau.”
Likewise, the Worldwide Water Programs Conference, adopted by the United Nations in 1997, applies sure rights and duties in relation to trans-boundary flows, though neither Bangladesh, India or China are signatories.
China has tried to allay these considerations. In an announcement in December, Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese language International Ministry mentioned: “China will proceed to keep up communication with India and Bangladesh by current channels. There is no such thing as a want for the surface world to over-interpret it.”
Classes from the Mekong
Whereas the mission within the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon will definitely be the biggest, it isn’t the one dam mission alongside the river.
A number of small- and medium-sized dams have already been constructed, based on the Stimson Heart’s Eyler.
An authority on the Mekong River, he’s frightened the Yarlung Tsangpo might pave the way in which for the emergence of comparable initiatives.
Evaluation of current information on Chinese language dams has discovered “these operations have delivered deeper and deeper cuts to the downstream communities of the once-mighty Mekong river,” he mentioned.
He notes that the “zero coordination for working dams” has allowed China’s 11 Mekong dams to disrupt fish life and the circulation sediment and has instantly contributed to the collapse of river banks and the destruction of communities.
Whereas the specifics of China’s improvement plans for the Yarlung Tsangpo stay blurry, Eyler says there are big dangers.
“Rivers are recognized to be hungry,” Eyler mentioned.
“So you’re taking that sediment out and that hungry river begins in search of new stuff, and it’s gonna pull it off of the banks and trigger the deltas to erode. It’s a pure course of brought on by one thing unnatural.”
By damming the Yarlung Tsangpo’s Grand Canyon, one other supply of Tibetan id will probably be completely altered.
Tenzin Dolmey holds onto the hope that sooner or later she’s going to see Tibet for herself. However after residing 34 years away from her homeland, life as a Tibetan in exile has taught Dolmey to restrict her expectations.
“I at all times had this imaginative and prescient of the attractive capital of Lhasa,” she mentioned.
“However I do know will probably be like nothing near my desires.”