Should the Brahmaputra be diverted to Xinjiang ?

The Brahmaputra is one of the five great rivers that originates in Tibet. It is the longest river to cross Tibet, and the closest to the capital Lhassa.

Going down the Himalaya to the south, the Brahmaputra follows its course through Assam and joins the Ganges and other rivers to form a great delta over most of Bangladesh.

Now here is the idea. Bangladesh has too much water. Floods kill thousands each year. The country is the first non-island nation to be threatened by the rise of the oceans due to global warming. The huge delta of rivers only amplifies the problem by cutting off the country in a multitude of swampy river islands. Bangladesh would benefit from having less water.

Western China, Tibet and Xinjiang, on the contrary are very arid regions. The oasis of the Taklamakan desert are drying up, and many places in Chinese Turkestan risk to be rendered uninhabitable in a near future because of desertification.

Just look at the map. It wouldn't be an impossible feat of engineering, after the Three Gorges Dam (the world's biggest dam on the Yangtze), to built a dam to divert the Brahmaputra northward, even if a canal has to be dug to help it cross some regions. There is enough rain on the Indian side of the Himalaya to keep the river flowing in India and Bangladesh, although its output will be less.

The difficult part will be to cross the Kunlun Shan, but there is nothing that explosives won't solve. It's not the first time that valleys are widened or tunnel bored.

I don't think it is feasible. All you will achieve is create a lake in the middle of Tibet. It will never reach Xinjiang.

I saw a documentary about the Californians building a canal to bring water from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It goes above mountains by a system of pumps. The program said that it is the same as building a canal from Paris to the south of France. If they can go above mountains in California it's only a matter of budget for China to do the same with Tibet.