GUWAHATI: China has begun constructing a mega hydropower project on Yarlung Tsangpo River in the Nyingchi region of south-eastern Tibet.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang attended the project commencement ceremony on Saturday, according to the state-run media. Beijing had approved the multi-billion-dollar project in 2023.
The hydropower dam, said to be the world’s largest such project, will generate 60,000 MW of power. Yarlung Tsangpo enters Arunachal Pradesh as Siang and becomes Brahmaputra in Assam before flowing into Bangladesh.
Amid concerns that China might dry up the Brahmaputra, Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma expressed contrasting views on the project in the recent past.
Khandu described the project as a ticking ‘water bomb’ and an existential threat to the people of his state and their livelihoods. He said the dam was a matter of grave concern as China is not a signatory to the international water treaty and the country cannot be trusted.
“No one knows what China might do. It could even use this as a sort of water bomb… In case, the dam is built and they release water out suddenly, our entire Siang belt would be destroyed,” Khandu had stated.
In the light of this threat, he said the Arunachal government, in consultations with the Centre, had conceived the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project as a defence mechanism as well as for water security.
While Khandu is also apprehensive about China’s possible attempts to dry up Siang and Brahmaputra rivers, the Assam chief minister took it lightly.
He said China contributes only 30-35% of Brahmaputra’s total flow, mostly through glacial melt and limited Tibetan rainfall.
“The remaining 65-70% is generated within India, thanks to torrential monsoon rainfall in Arunachal, Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya; major tributaries like Subansiri, Lohit, Kameng, Manas, Dhansiri, Jia-Bharali, Kopili; and additional inflows from the Khasi, Garo, and Jaintia Hills via rivers such as Krishnai, Digaru, and Kulsi,” Sarma had posted on X on June 2.
“The Brahmaputra is not a river India depends on upstream -- it is a rain-fed Indian river system, strengthened after entering Indian territory,” he had further stated.