Chinese engineers have submitted plans of building a 1,000km tunnel to divert waters of the Brahmaputra from Tibet to arid Xinjiang, according to a report on Monday.
The plan, which, if approved, would have huge ramifications for downstream India and Bangladesh, envisages building the world's longest tunnel to carry as much as 10 billion to 15 billion tons of water from the Brahmaputra to the arid Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang.
Engineers want to divert water from Sangri county, in Tibet, before the Yarlung Tsangpo, as it is known in Tibet, enters India in Arunachal Pradesh.
The plan was submitted to the Chinese government in March but hasn't been approved, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.
Past diversion proposals were shelved because of high costs, environmental concerns, and issues in technical feasibility. Questions remain on the plan's feasibility, with Wang Wei, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering at Sichuan University in Chengdu who was involved in drafting the plan, telling the SCMP it would cost "one billion yuan" for each kilometre of tunnel, which would place the cost at an astronomically prohibitive $1 trillion Yuan-five times the cost of the Three Gorges Dam.
Zhou Shiqiao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing, told the paper, "To my knowledge, no environmental evaluation has been carried out. The nature and scale of the impact remain in the dark."
But another leading Chinese researcher who is developing a similar 600 km water tunnel in Yunnan as a demonstration project told the paper that China "would definitely go ahead with the project one day."
"In five to 10 years from now, the technology will be ready and the cost affordable, and the temptation of the benefits will be difficult to resist," said Zhang Chuanqing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics in Wuhan who is involved in the Yunnan plan.
That was launched in August, which is being seen as "a demonstration project". The Yunnan plan, however, costs only 78 billion Yuan.
If the government approves the Brahmaputra tunnel, this would have huge ramifications for India and Bangladesh.
India has already expressed concerns about a dam that was built upstream in Zangmu, Tibet, in 2010, which China says is a run of the river dam for hydropower generation that doesn't store large volumes of water and hence has a limited impact on downstream flows. Since then, three other dams have been given the green light on upper and middle reaches.
A diversion project would have far more serious ramifications.
Zhang said if the Yunnan project could "show we have the brains, muscle, and tools to build super-long tunnels in hazardous terrains, and the cost does not break the bank", then the plan might take off.
Wang Wei, the researcher, said: "more than 100 scientists formed different teams for the nation wide research effort." He said the plan suggested diverting the river from Sangri county which "featured a large, relatively flat valley that was ideal for the engineering project."
"An artificial island would be built in the middle of the river to create rapid turbulence, which could filter out sediment, and direct water to a well. The well could control the amount of water flowing into the tunnel."
Wang told the SCMP the project "would prompt protests from India and Bangladesh," but added that compared to the construction of "massive dams", it "won't leave a mark on the surface for other countries or environmental activists to point their fingers at".
But with the plan calling for diverting huge amounts of water, that would hold little comfort for those likely to suffer the impact downstream.
The plan, which, if approved, would have huge ramifications for downstream India and Bangladesh, envisages building the world's longest tunnel to carry as much as 10 billion to 15 billion tons of water from the Brahmaputra to the arid Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang.
Engineers want to divert water from Sangri county, in Tibet, before the Yarlung Tsangpo, as it is known in Tibet, enters India in Arunachal Pradesh.
The plan was submitted to the Chinese government in March but hasn't been approved, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.
Past diversion proposals were shelved because of high costs, environmental concerns, and issues in technical feasibility. Questions remain on the plan's feasibility, with Wang Wei, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering at Sichuan University in Chengdu who was involved in drafting the plan, telling the SCMP it would cost "one billion yuan" for each kilometre of tunnel, which would place the cost at an astronomically prohibitive $1 trillion Yuan-five times the cost of the Three Gorges Dam.
Zhou Shiqiao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing, told the paper, "To my knowledge, no environmental evaluation has been carried out. The nature and scale of the impact remain in the dark."
But another leading Chinese researcher who is developing a similar 600 km water tunnel in Yunnan as a demonstration project told the paper that China "would definitely go ahead with the project one day."
"In five to 10 years from now, the technology will be ready and the cost affordable, and the temptation of the benefits will be difficult to resist," said Zhang Chuanqing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics in Wuhan who is involved in the Yunnan plan.
That was launched in August, which is being seen as "a demonstration project". The Yunnan plan, however, costs only 78 billion Yuan.
If the government approves the Brahmaputra tunnel, this would have huge ramifications for India and Bangladesh.
India has already expressed concerns about a dam that was built upstream in Zangmu, Tibet, in 2010, which China says is a run of the river dam for hydropower generation that doesn't store large volumes of water and hence has a limited impact on downstream flows. Since then, three other dams have been given the green light on upper and middle reaches.
A diversion project would have far more serious ramifications.
Zhang said if the Yunnan project could "show we have the brains, muscle, and tools to build super-long tunnels in hazardous terrains, and the cost does not break the bank", then the plan might take off.
Wang Wei, the researcher, said: "more than 100 scientists formed different teams for the nation wide research effort." He said the plan suggested diverting the river from Sangri county which "featured a large, relatively flat valley that was ideal for the engineering project."
"An artificial island would be built in the middle of the river to create rapid turbulence, which could filter out sediment, and direct water to a well. The well could control the amount of water flowing into the tunnel."
Wang told the SCMP the project "would prompt protests from India and Bangladesh," but added that compared to the construction of "massive dams", it "won't leave a mark on the surface for other countries or environmental activists to point their fingers at".
But with the plan calling for diverting huge amounts of water, that would hold little comfort for those likely to suffer the impact downstream.