Saturday, September 16, 2006

China Planning To STEAL Tibet's Water

China's Designs On Tibet
Excerpt:

Once in place, the infrastructure network will speed up the exploitation of the Tibetan plateau's rich deposits of gold, copper, zinc, coal and other resources. Copper is regarded as particularly valuable as it is an essential component in the generation and transmission of electricity.

China has also invited transnational oil giants such as BP and Shell to explore for oil and gas equivalents after realising that its own companies lacked the expertise known to drill in a region known for its complex geology.

The Free Tibet Campaign, which fights for China's complete withdrawal from Tibet, has mounted a vigorous opposition against Western oil and mining companies helping China to extract local resources because it says Tibetans are routinely denied participation in key decision-making surrounding such projects.

"Tibetans are unable to exercise their economic rights to determine how their resources are utilised," Whitticase said. "They live in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation where opposition to an unsuitable project such as hydrocarbon extraction would have dire consequences.''

Perhaps one of the most controversial Chinese plans to tap Tibetan resources to date is Beijing's new water scheme, called the "the big Western line".

Encouraged by the success of its civil engineering triumph with the Golmud-Lhasa railway, Chinese planners have come up with an even more audacious scheme to build a series of aqueducts, tunnels and reservoirs that would carry water from Tibet all the way to the parched plains of Northern China.

The partly underground 300 km western line could eventually supply up to eight billion cubic metres of water a year from the Jinsha and other rivers in the Tibetan region, according to Li Guoying, head of the Yellow River Conservancy Commission. The water will also be used to feed the Yellow River's upper reaches to feed rising industrial demand, Li told the media at a press briefing recently.

Still, the project remains so controversial that no starting date has been announced. (END/2006)
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Reading this has truly incensed me, because it lays bare the motivations of the Chinese government for the world to see. HOW we can do so much business with this country knowing what their government is boggles my mind. Their leaders are corrupt, they deplore freedom of speech, and they do not care for the people, the environment, nor the spiritual ties this land has to those who live there.

Imagine the damage to the environment their 21 highway project will cause. Imagine the damage to the land with all the aqueducts and other means of stealing Tibet's water they will come up with to not have to be RESPONSIBLE for what they are doing in their own country. It is no wonder no date has been set for their latest scheme. It should bring international condemnation to them for their blatant attempt to ravage Tibet and other holy places of their resources particularly their water, and take the identity of their people away just for their own profit.

See:

Free Tibet Campaign

The Chinese Water Grab

About Tibet

Project For Tibet

Friends Of Tibet

I think it is interesting to note that in this region which includes the Himalayans, one of the rivers that are part of this system is the Indus which I also reported about here in an entry regarding dams being built in the same regions where indigenous people would be effected.

You can also read about that here:

Destroying A Himalayan Paradise

HOW MUCH MORE OF OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD WILL WE ALLOW THEM TO TAKE TO ASSUAGE THEIR GREED? China only wants this region as a military installation. I say, the ravaging of Tibet must be stopped.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Native Groups Join To Save Water Supply

Native Groups Join To Save Water Supply

By Jeffrey Jones
Thu Sep 7, 6:14 PM ET

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Booming oil and gas development in Western and Northern Canada has prompted native groups to build a united front to better protect the vast region's water resources, aboriginal leaders said on Thursday.

About 200 First Nations representatives from Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories gathered in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., this week for a three-day conference on how to stem worsening water quality and diminishing supplies as a result of industrial development.

It was hosted by Deh Cho First Nation Grand Chief Herb Norwegian, who is holding out against the C$7.5 billion ($6.8 billion) Mackenzie Valley pipeline that would cross his people's land.

As many as 60 aboriginal groups live on a huge watershed that encompasses much of the oil- and gas-rich provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, Norwegian told Reuters by telephone. The resource is considered sacred in native cultures.

"The idea here is that this becomes a catalyst so people can actually start focusing on this really serious issue of water," he said.

"In Canada we have an abundance and we take it for granted, but I think we need to be very serious about what we have at our doorsteps. First Nations have been using it for thousands of years and now we want to have something done about the problems that are coming our direction."

Poor water quality on native reserves across Canada has made international headlines in recent years. In 2005, 1,200 people from the Kashechewan Cree reserve in northern Ontario were evacuated due to contaminated water.

A top concern is water availability in northeastern Alberta, where surging oil prices have sparked an oil sands investment boom valued at more than C$100 billion. The industry uses huge volumes of water to extract the tar-like bitumen.

The level of the Athabasca River has dropped and residents have been told to avoid drinking the water or eating the fish, said Jean L'hommecourt of the Fort McKay First Nation, which is located in the midst of most of the developments.

"I'm not sure about what can be done to replenish the water again, because that's something that probably can't be fixed unless all the industry stops taking water from the Athabasca River to produce their oil," L'hommecourt said.

The Athabasca flows more than 1,500 km (935 miles) from the Columbia Icefield in the Rocky Mountains to Lake Athabasca in northeastern Alberta. Those waters then flow north more than another 2,000 km (1,200 miles) via the Slave and Mackenzie rivers to the Arctic Ocean.

The leaders said they aim to hold another water conference next year, and invite industry and government representatives to what could become a regular round-table session.

However, Pat Marcel, an elder and tribal chairman from Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, said he believed governments with visions of rich royalty and tax revenues have ceded at least some of their protection powers to industry, forcing native groups to forge their own coalition.

"First Nations are seeking help by joining with the Deh Cho territories and (British Columbia native groups). I think we can have a very successful caucus here," Marcel said.

Water supply is already a major issue in northeastern British Columbia, site of a deep natural gas and coal development rush, as well as hydroelectric dams, said Chief Roland Wilson of the West Moberly First Nation.

Much of the activity is geared for export to satisfy the immense energy demand of the United States.

"It's so California can run their air conditioners 24 hours a day down there and keep them all nice and cozy, while the First Nations people up here have to suffer the impacts," he said.
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Corporate greed up close and personal.

See my previous entry on this here in our archives entitled: Oil Sands Development Not Sustainable.

It would appear that the Albertan government cares more for profit than its native inhabitants.

Also see: Deh Cho First Nations

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