What will China’s new mega dam mean for India ties and fragile Tibetan ecosystem?

Huge hydro project in Tibet could risk geological disasters and irk New Delhi as neighbours try to ease tensions, observers say

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China plans to build a massive hydropower project in Tibet on a section of the Yarlung Tsangpo River known as the Grand Canyon, shown here near Nyingchi city. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:00am, 28 Dec 2024Updated: 7:06pm, 28 Dec 2024

Beijing’s approval of a controversial mega dam on a river flowing from Tibet autonomous region into India, has raised concerns about the project’s environmental impact and its effect on China-India ties, which had been on the mend.

The dam on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River is expected to be the world’s largest hydroelectric project and could generate three times the power of the Three Gorges Dam. Its construction will mark a major step in China’s plan to tap the hydropower potential of the Tibetan Plateau.

But it could also intensify a dam-building competition between the Asian neighbours near their disputed Himalayan border, according to diplomatic and environmental experts.

State news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday that the Chinese government had recently approved the massive project, which was included in Beijing’s 14th five-year plan from 2021 to 2025.

The report did not specify the exact location of the project on Tibet’s longest river, which becomes the Brahmaputra River when it flows into the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, an area viewed by China as part of southern Tibet. The river also flows into Bangladesh, where it is called the Jamuna.

But what is known is that the project will be built on a section referred to as the Grand Canyon, or the “Great Bend”, on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo.

According to a 2020 estimate by state-owned Power Construction Corporation of China, the dam, located in one of the most hydropower-rich areas of the world, is expected to produce nearly 300 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually.