China working towards building a tunnel to divert Brahmaputra River

China working towards building a tunnel to divert Brahmaputra River?

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Chinese media, China is now working to develop a technology. That will enable the building of a 1,000 km long tunnel to divert the water from the Brahmaputra River towards Xinjiang.

A media report update today, “China is building a tunnel to divert the water of Brahmaputra river towards Xinjiang region. According to reports, Chinese engineers are testing techniques that could be use to build a 1,000-km long tunnel. The worlds longest to divert water from Brahmaputra river in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh to the parched Xinjiang region.

Though the move expect to turn Xinjiang into California, raise concerns among environmentalists about its likely impact on the Himalayan region, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post inform.

The proposed tunnel, which would drop down from the world’s highest plateau in multiple sections connected by waterfalls, would provide water in China’s largest administrative division, comprising vast swathes of deserts and dry grasslands.

The water will divert from the Yarlung Tsangpo River in southern Tibet. Which turns into the river Brahmaputra once it enters India, to the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang.

China’s longest tunnel is the 85-km Dahuofang water project in Liaoning province. While the world’s longest tunnel is the 137-km main water supply pipe beneath the city of New York.

Though India already report its concerns to Beijing about various dams being built on the Brahmaputra river. Often call as Yarlung Tsangpo in China.

Beijing has been assuring India and Bangladesh. which is also a recipient of the waters from the river. Also that its dams were of the run of river projects and not design to storing water.

However Wang Wei, a researcher who helped draft the latest Tibet-Xinjiang water tunnel proposal. Which submit to the central government in March, said more than 100 scientists formed different teams for the nationwide research effort.

Though he was part of the team which was led by China’s top tunnelling expert, Wang Mengshu.

The team, according to the report, suggested to drain Brahmaputra at Sangri county in southern Tibet, close to Arunachal Pradesh.

As per the report, “Sangri county feature a large relatively flat valley that was ideal for the engineering project. An artificial island will be built in the middle of the river to create rapid turbulence. Which can filter out sediment and direct water to a well. The well could control the amount of water flowing into the tunnel”.

The Chinese government started building a tunnel in the center of Yunnan province in August that will be more than 600-km long.

Researchers said building the Yunnan tunnel would be a “rehearsal” of the new technology, engineering methods and equipment needed for the Tibet-Xinjiang tunnel. Which would divert the Brahmaputra river to the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang.

Chinese engineers say the Tibetan Plateau, often referred to as “the roof of the world”. Also stops the monsoon from Indian Ocean reaching Xinjiang leaving the Gobi Desert in the north and the Taklimakan Desert in the south unsuitable for human settlement.

In recent decades, Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Water Resources, have come up with engineering blueprints involving huge dams, pumps and tunnels, the report said.

The projects enormous cost engineering challenges, possible environmental impact.

Brahmaputra River Scene

China working towards building a tunnel to divert Brahmaputra River
China working towards building a tunnel to divert Brahmaputra River

Zhang Chuanqing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics in Wuhan, Hubei province. He inform China now taking a quiet step-by-step approach to bring it to life.

“The water diversion project in central Yunnan is a demonstration project,” inform Zhang. Who play a key role in many major Chinese water tunnel projects, including the one in Yunnan.

“It is to show we have the brains, muscle and tools to build super-long tunnels in hazardous terrains. And the cost does not break the bank,” he quote as saying by the Post.

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