Days after cover-up, China admits damage to 5 dams in Tibet from earthquake

In a reversal from its earlier stand that the 6.8-magnitude earthquake in Tibet did not cause any damage to dams in the region, the Chinese regime on Thursday said it has detected damage, including cracks, in reservoirs of at least five dams in the region.

On January 7, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Tibet. At least 126 people were killed and hundreds were injured . More than 3,500 houses and religious structures in the region have also suffered damage in the earthquake and aftershocks to the tune of 5 on Richter scale.

Shortly after the earthquake, analysts highlighted the precarious positions of China’s hydropower projects in the region. China has built several dams in Tibet to harness the occupied region’s water resources — the Communist regime of China invaded Tibet in 1950-51 and has occupied it since. Analysts pointed that these dams were created in ecologically sensitive Himalayas which are vulnerable to earthquakes. The said damage to dams could be devastating.

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While China at the time was quick to cover up and censor any news related to damage to dams, it has now been forced to admit damage to dams.

A Chinese official with the emergency services in Tibet said on Thursday that problems, including cracks, have been detected in five of 14 dams in the region, according to Reuters.

Three of these dams have since emptied and a fourth is in the process of being drained, said the official.

In the case of one dam in Tingri area, the damage was so severe that the walls of the dam tilted and around six villages around the dam had to be evacuated.

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Earthquakes in the Himalayas have a history of damaging dams. In the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, around a fifth of country’s hydropower projects was shuttered for more than a year.

Despite such concerns, China has continued to ramp up hydropower activities in Tibet. Less than two weeks before the devastating earthquake in Tibet, China in December announced it would build the world’s largest dam in Tibet on Brahmaputra river. The development sparked concerns in downstream countries India and Bangladesh where Brahmaputra comes from China-occupied Tibet.

While concerns around China controlling water and waging ‘water wars’ have been flagged for some time, fears around dams being breached from earthquakes are also being raised now. Concerns are high in India as China is building the world’s largest dam at the doorstep of India in the ecologically sensitive Himalayas.

Y Nithiyanandam, the Head of the Geospatial Research Programme at the Takshashila Institution, told VOA News that the region proposed for dam construction is highly susceptible to landslides.

“Planning a dam of this magnitude in such complex terrain poses significant risks to downstream regions of India and Bangladesh, especially in the event of a mishap or if there is alteration in the water flow,” said Nithiyanandam.

Prof. Srikanth Kondapalli, a China expert at at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told the outlet that there are questions why China is building such an unfeasible project next door to a contested region.

“China acts unilaterally on issues related to trans-boundary rivers that originate in their territory. India, for example, has a treaty with Pakistan for common rivers that flow in both countries. There are also questions as to why a dam is being built in a fragile area so close to an area that is contested between the two countries,” said Kondapalli.