The residents of Gyama Township ,near Lhasa,are protesting against a mining company that is carrying out a water-diversion project in Gyama region.
The large-scale facility is being built to channelize water to the mining site. The pipes are laid across agricultural lands, which have been forcefully taken away from farmers without compensations. The mining has been going on in the upper hills of Gyama for nearly two decades. Toxic wastes dumped into Gyama Shingchu river resulted in the death of a large number of cattle last year.
Angry villagers took to streets on 20 June and clashed with Chinese police .
3 Tibetans wounded,one of them is quite serious and had to be taken to a hospital in Lhasa.
Villagers depend on Gyama Shingchu for their drinking water supply and irrigation. However, the river has since dried up due to destruction of its source by excessive mining. Many of the natural springs in the area have also dried up deteriorating their drinking water supply. There are fifteen villages in the valley, two of which are nomadic.