Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 18: China has reported structural damage, including cracks, to five out of 14 hydropower dams in Tibet following a powerful earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. The quake struck near Dingri County in the Shigatse Prefecture on January 7 at 9:05 AM local time.
Following an investigation into 14 dams in the earthquake-affected area, Tibet’s emergency management officials announced in a press conference that five dams had sustained damage. Of these, three dams have since been emptied to mitigate risks. One reservoir suffered severe damage, with its walls tilting, necessitating the evacuation of approximately 1,500 residents from six downstream villages.
Currently, efforts to reduce water levels in three reservoirs are ongoing, while a fourth is being fully drained. Monitoring equipment has been installed to track the stability of the impacted structures, and emergency repairs are underway.
The earthquake has reignited concerns about the vulnerability of China’s extensive hydropower projects in Tibet. Analysts argue that the projects’ locations on a seismically active plateau pose significant risks. Despite these warnings, China continues to expand its hydropower infrastructure in the region. Notably, in December 2024, less than two weeks before the earthquake, China announced plans to construct the world’s largest dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet. The river, known as the Brahmaputra in India, flows into Arunachal Pradesh and Assam before reaching Bangladesh, raising environmental and geopolitical concerns for downstream nations.
China dismissed these concerns, stating, “China’s construction of the hydropower project over in the Yarlung Tsangpo River has gone through rigorous scientific verification and will not have any negative impact on the ecological environment, geology, and water resources of the downstream countries.”
Following the earthquake, President Penpa Tsering of the exile Tibetan government known officially as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) issued a strong warning to China during a special prayer service. Speaking to exile media, he said, “This is a warning signal from nature to the Chinese government. They must prioritise environmental assessments for mega-projects in Tibet, particularly the planned dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River at Pemako. This dam is expected to generate three times the electricity of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest in China. Considering the Tibetan plateau’s seismic activity, any damage to such a massive structure could have catastrophic consequences for downstream countries.”
The Tibetan plateau, formed by tectonic shifts between the Indian and Eurasian plates, remains one of the most seismically active regions in the world. Environmentalists and geopolitical experts have called for increased scrutiny of China’s infrastructure projects in Tibet to prevent disasters that could impact millions across Asia.
The Yarlung Tsangpo dam issue is an international issue. The Tibetan Yarlung Tsangpo runs from occupied Tibet to India and then to Bangladesh. It affects all the regions where the Tsangpo flows. One of the experts on the landscape, ecology and biodiversity cupped her head in utter disbelief and said, “it’s insane” after she explained the consequences of such a mega dam! The CCP is insane indeed! It has brought monumental disasters to China, Tibet and the world and continues to create mammoth disaster and unimaginable misery to the Tibetan people. It is exploiting the extremely rich natural resources of Tibet for the benefit of the Chinese at the expense of the Tibetans who are custodians of Tibet. Tibetans are dislocated from their ancestral lands and moved to ghettoes where they live in utter misery. Many of them take to alcohol and commit suicide exactly like the indigenous people of America, Canada, Australia. and New Zealand where the white colonisers completely marginalised the native people by extracting their resources, driving them from ther land and stealing their children from their parents to be indoctrinated into white society. Today, the CCP is doing exactly the same by driving Tibetans from their ancestral land and stealing Tibetan children by force and indoctrinating them into Chinese society! COMMUNIST CHINA IS COLONISING TIBET IN THE SAMR MANNER AS THE WHITE EUROPEAN COLONISERS DID TO THE PEOPLE THEY CONQUERED BY FORCE! COMMUNIST CHINA IS AS IMPERIALISTIC AS THE BRITISH, FRENCH, THE DUTCH AND AMERICA. In fact Chinese communist imperialism is more insidious in that it has no empathy whatsoever to the people they conquered unlike the Europeans who had some fear of God! The Chinese communists are rabid anti-religion and believe only in the exploitation of natural resources of the people and territories they conjured without the slightest concern for the well-being of the unfortunate victims! This demonstrate the monstrosity of Chinese communist imperialism and colonialism which is far more ruthless, callous and vindictive than the God fearing European imperialists and colonisers! Tibet is the victim of the worlds most voracious coloniser and the greatest killer in human history! The people of Dege are living in constant fear of being merciless evicted from their ancestral and so is the people living on the banks of the Yarlung Tsangpo, who are even more traumatised by the recent announcement by the ruthless regime! In democratic countries, at least the people can express their opposition but with the totalitarian Chinese communist regime, the moment you protest, you are a dead man! Since Tibetans are hapless under the groaning yoke of Chinese occupation, India as a powerful nation must protest vociferously in order to preempt cataclysmic disaster in future both in terms of water denial as well as flooding and landslides when the dams overflow or excess water is released! Bangladesh is cozying up to the CCP regime after Sheik Hasina has been toppled so it will probably say nothing despite the danger that looms for the future. The fact that the regime acknowledged the cracks in the dams they had built perhaps give a glimmer of hope. The regime is extremely secretive and never admit anything that goes against it. However, the fact that they admitted the development in the dams owing to the 7.1 magnitude earthquake on the 7th of January could be a face saving mechanism to shelve the Yarlung Tsangpo project seeing for the first time the inherent danger of such a mega dam in a highly seismically active region. But I would not bet on it knowing the obstinate nature of the Chinese communist regime!