The Yarlung Tsangpo Hydroelectric Project is slated to be built on the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet near the border of India at a cost of 137 billion US dollars. The project is part of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan that includes environmental goals to accelerate ‘renewable energy and fight pollution’.
By Salam Rajesh
The decision of the Chinese Government to initiate the world’s largest dam in the Tibet Autonomous Region to generate hydroelectric power is triggering serious concerns not only for India, its immediate neighboring lower riparian country, but also for the larger world community in terms of strategizing water sources as a method of weaponising to intimidate its neighbors and exercise its supremacy in the region.
The Chinese Government has approved what is set to become the biggest hydropower dam complex in the world, capable of producing nearly three times as much power as the current world’s largest dam – the Three Gorges Dam, also in China.
The Yarlung Tsangpo Hydroelectric Project is slated to be built on the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet near the border of India at a cost of 137 billion US dollars. The project is part of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan that includes environmental goals to accelerate ‘renewable energy and fight pollution’.
The proposed super dam looks to take advantage of the Yarlung Tsangpo’s steep geographical setting to harness more hydropower than ever before, expected to generate of a massive 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, translating to about 300 TWh, which is enough to provide electricity to around 300 million people in the country.
The Three Gorges Dam, spanning the Yangtze River in China, currently holds the world record for installed capacity and annual hydroelectricity generation, producing between 95 and 112 TWh annually. When completed, the proposed Yarlung Tsangpo Hydroelectric Project will overshadow the production capability of the Three Gorges Dam by nearly three times.
Communist China is already in the headlines with its agenda of subjugating the island nation of Taiwan which it had long claimed as its territory. China’s ambition to take over Taiwan follows in the wake of its take-over of the former British colony Hong Kong after years of threatening military action over the ‘subordination’ of the territory that it said was part and parcel of the greater Chinese domain.
If history tells us how communist China took over Manchuria in the past, it is nothing new in its drive to forcibly take over Taiwan. This small island nation finds comfort in the strong support from the powerful United States of America. It, therefore, is seen that any move made by China is going to directly clash with the interest of the Americans.
It is in this background that China’s proposal to construct the largest ever high dam in Tibet is causing sleepless nights for the Indian government, and perhaps later on for the Bangladeshi government being a lower riparian country enjoying the perennial water supply of the Brahmaputra (Tsangpo in Tibet).
The Chinese government had downplayed the concerns flashed by the Government of India, hinting at that no significant damages would be suffered by the lower riparian country by the dam. China’s proposed dam at the river head of the Yarlung Tsangpo is projected to be much larger than the mighty Three Gorges Dam, one of the biggest man-made dams in the whole world, and the threat perception is all too real for India.
For India, the proposed dam means many things. First, China will have absolute control over the river head of the Siang River, later translated as the mighty Brahmaputra downstream. China can dictate the river flow of the Siang River which flows through Arunachal Pradesh, a region that communist China had long said the territory belongs to it. In fact, China had renamed many of the villages located in Arunachal Pradesh along the international border.
The threat of river diversion is very much there, as China would say that it needs to divert the water flow of the Yarlung Tsangpo River for irrigating the plains in the Gopi Desert areas. The threat of both Siang and Brahmaputra facing low water level in the lean season is very much there in case the dam comes up finally. And, it could impact Bangladesh drastically, as much as the neighboring country already has disputes with India over water distribution by the Farakka Barrage in Midnapur District of West Bengal.
The Bangladeshi Government has long been accusing India of manipulating the water of the Ganges, inducing drought-like conditions in the north western parts of the country when the water flow is cut off by the Farakka Barrage, particularly in the lean season. So, the Brahmaputra flowing at low ebb can only worsen the drought scenario in Bangladesh’s north and north eastern parts.
Downplaying India’s concerns, the Chinese Government says there will be no major impact, environmentally and ecologically, downstream. It, however, has to be noted that the super dam is coming up in a highly seismic active region, with Tibet being rocked by a massive earthquake at 7.1 magnitude on the Richter scale on Monday, killing more a hundred people and destroying several houses. The risk of severe damage to the proposed super dam by major earthquakes is certainly evident as demonstrated by the disaster on Monday.
The Tibetan government-in-exile in India has accused China with interfering in the geophysical and geo-political domain in Tibet, and has hinted at that the recent major earthquake was an end result of China’s large-scale extraction of mineral resources through earth excavations, plus major disturbances in the hydrological structure for large dam building.
Meanwhile, India’s Ministry of External Affairs had urged Beijing ‘to ensure that the interests of downstream states of the Brahmaputra are not harmed by activities in the upstream areas’. The US National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, visited India last week to discuss the impact of the proposed Chinese super dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River with Indian officials in New Delhi, anticipating a much larger regional tension over water issues.
With climate change, global warming and extreme weather event impacts on the frontline of serious global dialogues currently, the construction of a hypersensitive super dam in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem is slated to become a major concern for the world community in terms of environmental and ecological disasters in the making in future times as glaciers recede rapidly with each passing year and glacial lake outbursts becoming the norm presently.