China’s Grand Dam Project: The Damage It Will Cause to Bangladesh, India, and Tibet

Last Updated on January 4, 2025 7:06 am

The Chinese government is moving forward with its plan to build a grand dam upstream on the Brahmaputra River, ignoring the multifaceted concerns of the people of Bangladesh, India, and Tibet.

According to experts, the construction of this world’s largest hydroelectric dam will severely disrupt the landscape and natural water supply systems of Bangladesh, India, and Tibet. Biodiversity will be damaged, millions of people will be displaced, and many religious sites, pilgrimage sites, and cultural diversity will be wiped out.

According to a report published in China’s state news agency Xinhua, the Chinese government has approved the construction of the Medog Hydropower Station on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The dam, three times larger than China’s massive Three Gorges Dam, is expected to generate 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

The Yarlung Tsangpo River, which originates from glaciers in western Tibet, flows into India as the Brahmaputra River and Bangladesh as the Yamuna River. The project area is one of the most sacred and biodiverse areas for Tibetans.

China has not released details on when construction will begin and end, or the potential impact of the new dam project. It has not said how many people it will displace, what the impact on the areas will be, or what the environmental and cultural consequences might be.

But experts and rights activists say the impact on the vast gorge of the Yarlung Tsangpo in Ningchi city will be significant, and China could use the dam to its advantage.

It will almost certainly affect the flow patterns and local flora and fauna. There will also be concerns about water security, as China can use the dam to control the flow of water downstream.

Indian water conservation expert Vishwanath Srikanthia said any dam on the river has a huge environmental impact downstream. China could also use it as a tool by keeping the details of the dam’s operations secret.

He also said that India can learn from the impact of the dams built by China on the Mekong River in Laos, especially during drought years, on downstream countries, and how China is managing them for its own benefit.

Studies have shown that China’s 11 large dams on the upper Mekong River have often caused severe drought conditions in the downstream region over the past two decades. These dams have limited or blocked water flow in downstream countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. They have also disrupted biodiversity and caused river erosion.

Tibetan protests

China’s dam projects have sparked protests in the past. Earlier this year, thousands of Tibetans were arrested for protesting against the Kamtok or Gangtuo dam project on the upstream of the Drichu River (known as the Jinsha in China) in Tibet. The project is expected to affect at least two villages and six Buddhist monasteries in Dege province.

Beijing’s investment in the dam in the Yarlung Zangbo Gorge is expected to exceed $137 billion, more than four times the total investment of the Three Gorges Dam project of $34.5 billion.

The hydroelectric power station will be built in Medog (Motuo in Chinese) division of the Ningtri (Nyangchi) prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region, bordering India’s Arunachal Pradesh.

There is already ample evidence of the negative impacts of hydroelectric projects in the Himalayas. The project will undoubtedly change the ecological flow of the river. The larger the dam, the greater the impact on the river flow. It is not clear how many people will have to move to build the dam and reservoir.

The construction of the Three Gorges Dam has displaced about 1.4 million people. However, the area around the Yarlung Tsangpo River where the Medog Hydropower Station is planned is less populated than the area along the Yangtze River, where the Three Gorges Dam was built.

Impact on India and Bangladesh

The dam could alter the flow of the Brahmaputra River, disrupting agriculture, hydroelectricity generation and drinking water supply in India’s northeastern states, particularly Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, said Neeraj Singh Manhas, special advisor for South Asia at the Parle Policy Initiative in South Korea.

He said seasonal changes in water discharge could exacerbate downstream flooding and intensify droughts, which would damage livelihoods and ecosystems.

According to him, the potential for river flow changes further downstream in Bangladesh threatens the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta, which is vital to the country’s agriculture and fisheries industries.

Manhas said the dam could reduce soil fertility and accelerate erosion in the delta due to silt retention. Strategically, the dam would increase China’s influence over its riverside neighbors, which could heighten tensions in an already sensitive geopolitical region.

He added that both India and Bangladesh may need to engage diplomatically with China to address these concerns.

Earthquake concerns

Another major concern is the location of the Medog hydroelectric dam in a geologically unstable area, which is prone to earthquakes and landslides. The huge volume of water the dam will hold could exacerbate these hazards, Srikanthia said.

According to a study by the International Campaign for Tibet, China has built or plans to build at least 193 hydroelectric dams in Tibet since 2000, about 80 percent of which are large.

More than 60 percent of the 193 dams are still in the proposal or preparation stage. If completed, these dams could displace more than 1.2 million people and destroy religious sites, the human rights group said.

Dechen Palmo, a climate researcher at the Tibet Policy Institute, said that while the specific details of the dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River have not yet been released, the project is likely to displace Tibetans and destroy ancient monasteries.

He said the new mega-dam would pose environmental risks that would have significant impacts on neighboring countries, including India, as has been seen with several dams built by China on rivers in Tibet.