Landslide in Tibet blocks Dri Chu and Yarlung Tsangpo

 Oct 18: As many as 6,000 people from Menling County in the Traditional Tibetan Province of U-Tsang had been evacuated after a landslide had blocked the Yarlung Tsangpo, China’s emergency services announced earlier that day

The landslide reportedly struck during the early hours of the day on Oct 17 near a village in Menling County and it had blocked the waterway, according to the regional water resources department.

The water level in the lake had risen 40 meters, and the amount of water reached 150 million cubic meters, the department had said.

Though there were no reports of deaths or injuries after the landslide, it is the second landslide that has rocked the Tibet. A massive landslide hit Derge in the Traditional Tibetan province of Kham and completely blocked the Dri Chu river earlier this week on Oct 11.

Landslide and flooding of villages in Tibet are linked to Chinese construction projects, the London-based advocacy group Free Tibet said on Oct 15 after the landslide that cut off Drichu.

“Chinese authorities have been conducting excessive mining, development and dam construction projects in the area which, according to the local population, are directly linked to the increased occurrences of flooding, particularly in the regions of Karze and Ngawa. Chinese sources claim these incidents are natural and unrelated,” Free Tibet stated

The group further noted that of late, China’s exploitation of Tibet’s natural resources has gathered pace significantly.

The ill-advised developmental projects being carried out in Tibet by the Chinese regime at the cost of the fragile Tibetan environment.

 Oct 11: A massive landslide has hit Derge in the Traditional Tibetan province of Kham and completely blocked the Dri Chu river.

The sudden mountain landslide on both banks of the Dri Chu River in Dege’s Jomda county (Chinese Jiangda) was reported to have occurred at around 4 am (local time) earlier today in the morning and the landslide has rumbled down the mountains and completely blocked the passage of the Dri Chu.

Though there were no immediate reports of the causalities, the debris from the slide has caused the water level to rise rapidly at the rate of 5 centimetres in a minute. The authorities in the region have reportedly carried out an emergency rescue plan and in the region and transferred 287 teachers and students from Boluo Township Primary School and further transferred more than 400 villagers from Bogong Village and Ningba Village.

Dri chu, 6300 km long (3915 mi) is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. The river flows across Tibet and China before ending in the Pacific Ocean near Shanghai. When it enters China, its the Yangtze, or Chang Jiang (“Long River”) in China.

The ill-advised developmental projects being carried out in Tibet by the Chinese regime at the cost of the fragile Tibetan environment has long been criticized by the activist and rights groups as it threatens the Yellow, Yangtze, Ganges and other rivers that hundreds of millions of people depend on.

Scientists and experts in China have warned that China’s Three Gorges Dam built on the Yangtze River which is the world’s biggest hydropower project may be causing giant landslides in China after it cost $59 billion and 12 years to built it.

source by:http://tibetexpress.net