As per the 14th Five-Year Plan to be implemented (2020-2025) from next year, China is planning to build a major hydropower project on Brahmaputra river in Tibet. The idea is to implement hydropower exploitation in the downstream of the Yarlung Zangbo river (the Tibetan name for Brahmaputra) as the project could serve to maintain water resources and domestic security.

The plan is expected to be ratified by National People's Congress (NPC) early next year. 

China's reasons for the dam

    • The mainstream of the Yarlung Zangbo river has the richest water resources in Tibet Autonomous Region.

    • Total electricity potential of 80 million Kilowatt hours (KWh).

    • 50-Kilometer section of the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon has 70 million KWh that could be developed with a 2000-meter drop, which equals more than three ‘Three Gorges’ Power Stations in Hubei province.

    • Tibet has about 200 million KWh of water resources, accounting for 30 percent of the total in China.

    • 60 million KWh hydropower exploitation at the downstream of the Yarlung Zangbo River could provide 300 billion KWh of clean, renewable and zero-carbon electricity annually.

    • The project will play a significant role in realising China's goal of reaching a carbon emissions peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060.

    • The hydropower station could generate income of 20 billion yuan (USD 3 billion) annually for the Tibet Autonomous Region.

India's concern

    • Brahmaputra river is crucial for India too as its basin is a critical water source for Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Nagaland and West Bengal.

    • The Brahmaputra valley support the lives of several indigenous communities.

    • India has considerable established user rights to the waters of the trans-border rivers for being a lower riparian state and such a proposal has raised concern in India and Bangladesh.

    • The dam will eventually lead to degradation of the entire basin: Massive amounts of silt carried by the river would get blocked by dams leading to a fall in the quantity of soil and eventual reduction in agricultural productivity.

    • Brahmaputra basin is one of the world's largest ecologically sensitive zones and is identified as one of the world's 34 biological hotspots since several species of flora and fauna are endemic to this part only such as Kaziranga National Park houses 35 mammalian species out of which 15 are listed as threatened in IUCN conservation list.

    • Location of dams in Himalayas always pose a risk for being seismologically sensitive. Ex: 2015 Nepal earthquake and resultant landslides besides lives, wiped out several dams and other facilities. Close to a million people live in the Brahmaputra basin in India and tens of millions further downstream to Bangladesh.

    • India-China tussle can also lead to significantly change the flow rate during times of standoffs and high tensions.

    • Under the existing bilateral MoU, China provides hydrological information of Brahmaputra River and Sutlej River to India during the flood seasons. But China stopped the communication of water flow levels from its dams, effectively rendering India blind to floods during the standoff.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)