David Stanway, Interfax
November 17, 2006

Beijing/Shanghai: Plans to build a hydropower station on a sacred Tibetan lake in western China were abandoned last week, with the authorities deciding that developing the local tourist industry could turn out to be more profitable, but if the central government continues to encourage mining throughout its remote western regions, it will also need to build the infrastructure required to draw in investors. … The authorities decided to abandon the proposal to build a hydropower station on the Tibetan lake of Megoe Tso, which lies in the Tibetan prefecture of Ganzi in the neighboring province of Sichuan, but with the government planning to launch a series of electricity projects and thus provide the infrastructure for its wide-ranging mining plans in the region, other previously untouched areas are facing big changes. … Powerful central government-administered electricity companies like Datang and Huadian, as well as the Western Mining Corp., have already descended on Ganzi. As in Yunnan Province further southwest, the development of mineral resources will require the construction of massive and controversial hydropower facilities on the region’s rivers. … Within Tibet itself, mining and hydropower remain high priorities for the central government in Beijing. … Read the full story.