China World Biggest Dam: Will Northeast India and Bangladesh dry up? China is building the world’s largest dam on the Brahmaputra river

The situation of confrontation between India and China on the Line of Actual Control has been going on for the last three years. In the midst of this confrontation, China is going to do something that may upset India. There are reports that China is going to build a super dam near LAC (Line of Actual Control) in Tibet. Reportedly, the new dam is being built near the lower reaches of the Yarlung-Tsangpo River, which is basically India’s Brahmaputra River. Brahmaputra is one of the longest rivers in the world. This river originates from Tibet and ends in the Bay of Bengal. The Yarlung-Tsangpo is the upper stretch of the Brahmaputra where China’s ambitious project is reportedly going to come up.

This dam is part of China’s mega project

China has stepped up its efforts on hydropower projects in Tibet with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. The new dam, with a planned capacity of 60 gigawatts, will surpass China’s own ‘Three Gorges Dam’, currently recognized as the world’s largest hydroelectric facility, in both size and capacity. The site of this massive project is reportedly just 30 kilometers away from the Indian border and is a major cause of geopolitical concern in India.

Sino-Indian relations have long been complicated

After leaving the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), the Yarlung Tsangpo becomes the Brahmaputra River flowing through Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Bangladesh. It is important to the communities along its shores. The people mainly depend on the water and fertile soil of the river for agriculture, irrigation and fishing. Such a massive dam could block the flow of fertile silt-rich soil brought by the river, which would negatively impact low-lying agricultural areas. China-India relations have long been complicated by shared water resources.

Why worry for India

Although China claims that the dam is a run-of-the-river hydroelectric project and will not divert the Brahmaputra’s water, experts fear that it may reduce water flow during summer. And if China decides to release water from the dam during the monsoon, it could be disastrous for the already flood-prone state of Assam. According to The Hindu, in 2021, China started building a dam on the Mabja Zangbo River in Tibet. The dam, which is about 16 km north of the tri-junction (the border between India, Nepal and China), is of strategic importance. The Mabja Zangbo River originates in Nagari County, Tibet and flows through Nepal before joining the Ghaghra River, which eventually joins the Ganges. China is building dams on this river, which can not only divert water, but also store significant amounts of water, potentially leading to water shortages in areas that are downstream of the Mabja Zangbo River. dependent on water flow. This could have an adverse effect on low-lying areas, including Nepal, where water levels in rivers such as the Ghaghra and Karnali could decrease.