There are those who call it “the project of the century”, but there are also those who doubt and even themselves the consequences
China began to build the one that will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, but the project is in sensitive territory, Tibet. The project has an estimated cost of 146 billion euros. India and Bangladesh have already been apprehensive about the new construction on the Yarlung Tsangpo River, but Beijing says that ecological protection and local prosperity are priorities to take into account.
An advantageous solution for all that reduces pollution and generates clean energy, while helping Tibetans from rural areas. This is how the Chinese government and state media have this type of construction. But not all see it this way.
The project, known as Motuo Hydroelectric Station, besides being able to impact the lives of millions of Indians and Bengalis who downstream, can also affect local tibetans, as well as the surrounding environment – something that is raising various criticisms.
The authorities of India and Bangladesh have already shown concern about the possibility of China to control or divert the transfronist river Yarlung Tsangpo – a river that crosses the Tibet Plateau and goes down to India and to Bangladesh, where it flows into Siang, Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers.
Arunachal Pradexe Chief Minister, one of the Indian states, Pema Khandu, fears that the Siang and Brahmaputra rivers can “dry considerably” when the dam is completed.
The dam “will cause an existential threat to our tribes and our subsistence means. It is very serious, because China can even use this dam as a kind of ‘water pump’,” said Pema Khandu, in an interview with the BBC Indian Indian news agency.
“If the dam is built and suddenly the water is released, our entire waist of Siang will be destroyed,” he said. “In particular, the ADI tribe and similar groups … would see all its properties, land and especially human life, to suffer devastating effects,” he laments.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India had already been concerned about the impact of this new construction and had told Beijing that it would “ensure that the interests of downstream states” would not be harmed. This threatens to be a new focus of tension, as the two most populous countries in the world have occasionally faced because of regions disputed on the border.
Bangladesh authorities also fear the contours of this project. In February a letter was sent to Beijing to obtain more information about the dam.
The dam will consist of five waterfall hydroelectric plants and will be able to produce 300 billion kilowatt-hour of electricity per year, which is equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed by the UK last year. It is estimated that when completed, the project exceeds the three throat dam, considered the largest in the world, and produces three times more energy.
According to Lowy Institute, a reflection group based in Australia, said that “the control of these rivers [no planalto tibetano] effectively gives China a strangulation of the economy of India. ”
China has shown interest in hydroelectric potential in the Tibet region. The steep valleys and rural west rivers arouse China’s interest in building dams and hydroelectric plants.
The Chinese Prime Minister, who was present last Saturday at the ceremony that signaled the beginning of the construction, refers to this construction as the “project of the century”.
