BEIJING, Aug 5 – China, which controls Tibet for strategic and nationalistic reasons, now has yet another motive to hold on to the Himalayan region, as it has more water than any other part of the country.
Tibet has 448.2 billion cubic meters of water, or 30 percent of the national total, the People’s Daily reported on its website, citing a survey from the Ministry of Water Resources and the China State Power Group.
Because of its plentiful water resources, Tibet has the capacity to produce 40 times more energy than it does at present, the survey showed.
Tibet currently has only 400 hydropower stations that generate about 43 billion kilowatt hours every year, but if the resources were used optimally, that could rise to 1,800 billion kilowatt hours, the report said.
How to provide water for more than one billion people is one of China’s most worrying long-term problems.
Its per capita water resources remain among the lowest in the world, especially since successive droughts in the north resulted in the increasing use of non-renewable underground water reserves.
More than 20 million farmers in poor central and western areas lack sufficient water supplies, while another 300 million use water that has not been adequately treated, according to previous reports.
China has occupied Tibet since 1951.
