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| Entire Ganges, Brahmaputra and Padma-Meghna Basins |
Mighty Himalayas are the water tower of
South and Southeast Asia. More than 10 major rivers originate from Tibetan plateau
- Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong, Sutlej, Indus, Salween and Huang Ho (aka Yellow
River) are some of them. All these rivers are critical to the life and
well-being of millions of people live on their banks.
Brahmaputra River
2,880km long Brahmaputra originates from
Tibet. There the river is known as ‘Yarlung Tsangpo’. Total drainage area of
Brahmaputra river is 5,73,394 sq.km. This river flows eastwards through
southern Tibet for a distance of 1,625 km; then at its easternmost point it takes
a spectacular U-turn at Shuomatan Point (aka Great Bend) and enters India’s
easternmost state - Arunachal Pradesh.
Here the river is known as Siang. After
replenished by several tributaries, Brahmaputra enters Assam (aka Asom). Brahmaputra
is the life blood of Assam; after slowly flowing through Assam, Brahmaputra
enters Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, this river is known by the name Jamuna.
During his course in Bangladesh, Brahmaputra joins with Ganges (known as Padma
in Bangladesh) and Meghna and flows to Bay of Bengal. Before embracing the sea,
this combined river system creates the largest delta – Sundarbans.
By the way, this river is also shared by
Bhutan.
Importance for China, India and
Bangladesh
In terms of water flow and length,
Brahmaputra is the largest of Indian (though all parts are not in India)
rivers. From time to time, this river creates floods in Assam, thereby
enriching the soil in that state. As far as Bangladesh and the delta is
concerned, water from Brahmaputra is their lifeblood. In a not so distant
future when climate change threatens the patterns of Monsoon and many rivers
are expected to go dry, Brahmaputra may be the answer – at least for some time.
Declining water flow in Brahmaputra will also make its estuary more saline and
adversely affects the livelihoods of millions there.
The Problem
Problem we are currently facing is the
huge demand for water and electricity from northern and eastern Chinese cities.
As population is exploding in cities of coastal China, demand for water is also
rising exponentially. However, water is
not something which china can manufacturing cheaply. It is altogether a
different matter that, the run for becoming the manufacturing capital of world
also heavily polluted most of the water resources in China.
So, Chinese found a simple solution,
redirect water from Tibetan plateau to coastal cities. It doesn’t matter how
complex the engineering or natural calamity it is going to create. Looks like
the Chinese government is almost determined to divert water from the great
rivers of south to provide for hungry north and coastal area.
Dams
In order to accomplish the task, Chinese
government is going to create a series of dams in Brahmaputra - Zangmu, Gyatsa,
Zhongda, Jiexu, Jiacha, Langzhen etc.
Another solution is to break the Great
Bend and let Brahmaputra flow to China (however this is a huge engineering
challenge) or lift the water from Brahmaputra and move it to coastal area (this
is also an engineering challenge). Chinese romanticism with huge projects and
their gigantic chest of money may even make this possible.
Zangmu dam is the first in the series.
Built at an altitude of 3,260m, this 26-turbine dam is expected to generate 540
MW of electricity. Its height will be 116m and length 390m. This dam will have
a width of 19m at top and 76m at bottom.
It is believed that Jiexu, Zangmu and
Jiacha are within 25km of each other and approximately 550km from Sino-Indian
border.
Recently China operationalized $1.5bn
Zam Hydropower Station. Located in Gyaca County, Shannan Prefecture, and built by
‘Gezhouba Group’ on Brahmaputra river this project seems to be the largest in
Tibet. This dam is also considered as world's highest-altitude hydropower
station and the largest of its kind (this dam will produce 2.5bn kwh/year)
China claims that these dams are
basically designed as run of the river and not meant for diverting or storing
water. However, there isn’t much data available and its extreme secret nature is
very much suspicious.
Fragile Ecosystem
Even if it is not meant for water
diversion, these dams (for that matter dams currently under construction at
Indian side of Himalaya) are extremely dangerous.
Gorge of Brahmaputra is located in a
highly seismic zone and prone to earthquakes. In China, there is a strong lobby
advocating large dams (in India as well). They should have learned lessons from
three gorges dam.
An excellent paper 'Mountains of
Concrete: Dams Building in the Himalayas' published by an NGO International
Rivers - People, Water, Life’ explains,
'One of the biggest changes to occur in
big dams in the past 20 years is the rise of Chinese dam builders and
financiers. China's dam industry has gone global, building hundreds of dams
throughout Africa and Southeast Asia, but also Central Asia, South America, and
the Himalayas'.
From the experience of flash floods and
other disasters in Uttarakhand due to immense changes in the ecosystem and
frenzy dam building activities we all should have learned the lesson. Chinese
should be knowing better after three gorges dam. Costly Three Gorges project
was marketed as the solution for all problems and ended up as the biggest
nightmare.
Imagine the breakup of a huge dam in
higher Himalayas. This will wipe out civilization at river banks in lower
Himalayas. As we all know, Himalayas are one of the world’s youngest mountain range
and highly seismic. We can’t even blame nature for disasters.
International Problems
Brahmaputra is not fully flows through
Tibet; its waters are life blood for North-Eastern India and Bangladesh. When
building dams in international rivers - that too in border areas – Chinese have
to answer the concerns raised by lower riparian states.
Some of the mitigation actions both
India and China should take immediately are,
1. Make the details and design of dam’s public; or at least share it
with riparian states.
2. Let Indian officials visit the sites. After all, dams are not military
bases.
3. Chinese government should publish a white paper about their future
plans for Himalayan rivers.
4. We should also set up a permanent joint river commission for
Brahmaputra. Commission should meet regularly (like Nile Basin Initiative or
Mekong River Commission).
5. Chinese should provide year around water flow data in Chinese side
of Brahmaputra to India.
6. A water sharing agreement.
Let’s start with these steps,
We should not expect that Chinese will
provide the data just by asking. If that was the case, then this would have
happened years ago. It is to be noted that, China has refused to join Mekong
River Commission (they are only observers in the commission). In addition to
that, dragon is yet to ratify UN Convention on Non-Navigable Use of International
Watercourses. What more, there isn’t any water sharing agreements between Indian
and China, even though many rivers critical to the very existence of Northern,
Western and North-Eastern India starts from Tibetan plateau.
We shouldn’t hesitate in demanding data.
This is very much critical for India.
Sajeev
PS: It is believed that - in June 2000 -
a natural dam on Chinese-controlled side of Brahmaputra broke free and caused
massive flooding in Arunachal Pradesh. 30 Indians killed and another 50,000
displaced from their homes. Indian authorities charged that, China had withheld
vital information that could have improved flood forecasts. This finally led to
2002 agreement by which China should supply river flow data to India during
flood season. Problem is, this agreement covers for 6 months only. We are still
stuck there. Chinese should provide around the year data to India.
References
1. Wikipedia
2. Tibetan Sun etc.
3. Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia
3. Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia
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