Context: China has approved the construction of what will be the world’s largest hydropower dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, close to the Indian Border. This announcement has raised concerns in lower riparian states of India and Bangladesh.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key locations in the article; Facts about Brahmaputra river.
Salient Features:
- Location:
- It will be built at the lower reaches of Yarlung Zangbo river (Tibetan name of the Brahmaputra).
- The dam is to be built at a huge gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra river makes a huge ‘U turn’ to flow into Arunachal Pradesh and then to Bangladesh.
Cost & Scale:
- Total investment in the dam could exceed one trillion yuan (roughly equal to 137 billion U.S. Dollars), which is largest in terms of investment for any other single infrastructure project in the world.
- The project could produce 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. That would be more than triple the 88.2 billion kWh designed capacity of the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest, in central China.
- Significance for China:
- China’s Official statement states that “The project will play a major role in meeting China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, stimulate related industries such as engineering, and create jobs in Tibet.”
- Concerns for India:
- The dam empowers China to control the water flow in lower riparian reaches in India. Further, the project has potential in altering not only the local ecology but also the flow and course of the river downstream.
- The size and scale of it could also enable China to release large amounts of water flooding border areas in times of hostilities.
Brahmaputra River System:
- Brahmaputra originates as Tsangpo in the Kailash range near the Mansarovar lake, in Tibet.
- It traverses more than 1,000 km eastward, before forming a horseshoe bend around the Namcha Barwa peak and enters Arunachal Pradesh as Siang (or Dihang).
- Brahmaputra River: Formed by the confluence of Siang, Lohit, and Dibang rivers in Assam.
- Sub-basin: Arunachal Pradesh (Subansiri, Kameng, and Bhareli rivers), Assam (Manas, Kopili, Sankosh, and Dikhow rivers), Nagaland (Doyang), Meghalaya (Umngot and Kynshi rivers), West Bengal and Sikkim (Teesta).
- River Teesta joins Jumna (Brahmaputra in Bangladesh) as a right bank tributary.
| Left bank Tributaries of Brahmaputra | Right bank Tributaries of Brahmaputra |
| Dibang | Subansari |
| Lohit | Kameng |
| Burhi Dihang | Manas |
| Dhansari | Sankosh |
| Kelang |