Beijing’s approval of a controversial mega dam in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which flows from Tibet autonomous region into India, has sparked concerns about the environmental impact of the project, as well as the effect it could have on China-India ties amid signs of a thaw between the two neighbours.
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The dam 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 for the 2021 – 2025 period.
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, viewed by China as part of southern Tibet. The river also flows into Bangladesh, where it is called the Jamuna.
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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.