China Planning To STEAL Tibet's Water

China's Designs On Tibet
Excerpt:

Once in place, the infrastructure network will speed up the exploitation of the Tibetan plateau's rich deposits of gold, copper, zinc, coal and other resources. Copper is regarded as particularly valuable as it is an essential component in the generation and transmission of electricity.

China has also invited transnational oil giants such as BP and Shell to explore for oil and gas equivalents after realising that its own companies lacked the expertise known to drill in a region known for its complex geology.

The Free Tibet Campaign, which fights for China's complete withdrawal from Tibet, has mounted a vigorous opposition against Western oil and mining companies helping China to extract local resources because it says Tibetans are routinely denied participation in key decision-making surrounding such projects.

"Tibetans are unable to exercise their economic rights to determine how their resources are utilised," Whitticase said. "They live in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation where opposition to an unsuitable project such as hydrocarbon extraction would have dire consequences.''

Perhaps one of the most controversial Chinese plans to tap Tibetan resources to date is Beijing's new water scheme, called the "the big Western line".

Encouraged by the success of its civil engineering triumph with the Golmud-Lhasa railway, Chinese planners have come up with an even more audacious scheme to build a series of aqueducts, tunnels and reservoirs that would carry water from Tibet all the way to the parched plains of Northern China.

The partly underground 300 km western line could eventually supply up to eight billion cubic metres of water a year from the Jinsha and other rivers in the Tibetan region, according to Li Guoying, head of the Yellow River Conservancy Commission. The water will also be used to feed the Yellow River's upper reaches to feed rising industrial demand, Li told the media at a press briefing recently.

Still, the project remains so controversial that no starting date has been announced. (END/2006)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reading this has truly incensed me, because it lays bare the motivations of the Chinese government for the world to see. HOW we can do so much business with this country knowing what their government is boggles my mind. Their leaders are corrupt, they deplore freedom of speech, and they do not care for the people, the environment, nor the spiritual ties this land has to those who live there.

Imagine the damage to the environment their 21 highway project will cause. Imagine the damage to the land with all the aqueducts and other means of stealing Tibet's water they will come up with to not have to be RESPONSIBLE for what they are doing in their own country. It is no wonder no date has been set for their latest scheme. It should bring international condemnation to them for their blatant attempt to ravage Tibet and other holy places of their resources particularly their water, and take the identity of their people away just for their own profit.

See:

Free Tibet Campaign

The Chinese Water Grab

About Tibet

Project For Tibet

Friends Of Tibet

I think it is interesting to note that in this region which includes the Himalayans, one of the rivers that are part of this system is the Indus which I also reported about here in an entry regarding dams being built in the same regions where indigenous people would be effected.

You can also read about that here:

Destroying A Himalayan Paradise

HOW MUCH MORE OF OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD WILL WE ALLOW THEM TO TAKE TO ASSUAGE THEIR GREED? China only wants this region as a military installation. I say, the ravaging of Tibet must be stopped.