China reports five reservoirs with problems in Tibet following earthquake

An emergency official reported on Thursday that Chinese authorities have found cracks and other problems at five of the 14 hydropower dams they have inspected in Tibet since last week's magnitude 6.8 quake that shook the region.

The Tibet emergency management official said that three of the five dams affected have been emptied.

He said that in the county of Tingri (the epicentre of the earthquake), the walls of a hydrodam had tilted. This prompted the evacuation of approximately 1,500 people to higher ground from six villages downstream.

Monitoring devices are being installed at another hydrodam as it is being drained.

The earthquake that has left at least 126 dead and hundreds injured was a stark reminder of the dangers of a building spree for hydropower by China and India, in one of Earth's remotest and most quake-prone areas.

In the past, earthquakes have caused dam damage by triggering landslides or rockfalls. In 2015, a massive earthquake in Nepal shut down almost a fifth (or more) of the country's hydropower plants for over a year.

The earthquake in Tibet on Jan. 7, the fifth deadliest since 2008's Sichuan temblor in China, has destroyed over 3,600 homes and damaged religious buildings. Aftershocks up to magnitude 5.0 are still shaking the region.

The collision of Indian and Eurasian plates often causes earthquakes in the southwest parts of China, Nepal, and northern India. Tingri is especially vulnerable because it sits on top of the zone where the Indian Plate pushes beneath Tibet. (Reporting and editing by David Goodman, Angus MacSwan and Ryan Woo)

(source: Reuters)