Newsletter No. 60;
IRBMS
Mount Kailash range in Southern Tibet at an investment of around US$1.2 billion. The project is
elevation of 5300 m.A spring called Tamchok located in a V-shaped valley 3,200 metres above sea
Khambab spills from the glaciers which later gather level.
volume to become the Yarlung Tsangpo, the much smaller than China s 18,000-megawatt Three
Tibetan name of Brahmaputra River. In Chinese it Gorges Dam, but still equivalent to the entire
is known as Yarlung Zangbo. existing hydropower-generating capacity of Tibet.
The capacity is 510 megawatts, which is
In January 2013, China s State Council – the
There are several tributaries of Tsangpo in Tibet; country s
ultimate
Raka Zangbo (Raka Tsangpo), Lhasa (Kyi) and announced its new Energy Development Plan,
Nyang Qu (Gyamda) are prominent north bank which included several controversial dams on
tributaries where as Nyang Qu (Nyang Chu) is a Yarlung
tributary on the south bank. The Raka Zangbo suspended as a result of environmental concerns
(Raka Tsangpo) joins Tsangpo in the west of and public opposition. Among these were three
Xigazê (Shigatse) and Nyang Qu (Gyamda) River new hydropower dams on the middle reaches of
joins the river from the north at Zela (Tsela the Brahmaputra river: the 640 MW Dagu Dam
Dzong). The Lhasa (Kyi) river flows past the (which lies 18 km upstream of Zangmu, the 320
Tibetan capital of Lhasa and joins the Tsangpo at MW Jiacha Dam (also on the middle reaches of the
Qüxü. The right bank tributary Nyang Qu (Nyang Brahmaputra downstream of Zangmu), and the
Chu) meets the Tsangpo at Xigazê. Jiexu Dam (11 km upstream of Zangmu; the
Zangbo
decision-making
that
had
previously
body–
been
capacity of the Jiexu dam is, as yet, unconfirmed).
The Yarlung Zangbo, was one of the last of great If they are all built, Zangmu will be the fourth in a
rivers to remain undammed, but in 2010 it became row of five on the Sangri to Gyaca stretch of the
history. On November 12, 2010, the Chinese river, between the Gyaca and Jiexu plants. Yan
engineering Zhiyong, general manager of China Hydropower
firm
first
time
announced
the
completion of the Zangmu Hydropower Station. It Engineering
Consulting,
said
in
one
media
was the beginning of the damming of the river, interview:
until then it has been kept under wraps. hydropower projects outside of Tibet will have
The Zangmu hydroelectric power station is being been completed, and the industry s focus will shift
built on the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra to the Jinsha, Lancang, the upper reaches of the Nu
between the counties of Sangri and Gyaca with an River and the Yarlung.
By about 2020 most of China s
5
Integrated River Basin Management Society