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India is contemplating a plan to construct a 10 gigawatts (GW) hydropower venture in a distant japanese state, an Indian official mentioned on Tuesday, following studies that China might assemble dams on a piece of the Brahmaputra river.
The river, also called the Yarlung Tsangbo in China, flows from Tibet into India’s Arunachal Pradesh state and down by Assam to Bangladesh. Indian authorities are involved Chinese initiatives might set off flash floods or create water shortage.
“The need of the hour is to have a big dam in Arunachal Pradesh to mitigate the adverse impact of the Chinese dam projects,” T S Mehra, a senior official in India’s federal water ministry, informed Reuters.
“Our proposal is under consideration at the highest level in the government,” Mehra mentioned, including the Indian plan would create a big water storage capability to offset the affect of Chinese dams on flows.
Diplomatic relations between India and China are at a nadir, with troops locked in a border face-off within the western Himalayas for months.
Some analysts warned that damming the Brahmaputra might probably grow to be one other flashpoint, as Beijing’s dam constructing actions moved nearer to the Indian border.
“India is facing China’s terrestrial aggression in the Himalayas, maritime encroachments on its backyard and, as the latest news is a reminder, even water wars,” Brahma Chellaney, a specialist on India-China ties, mentioned in a tweet.
On Monday, Chinese state media reported the nation might construct up to 60 GW of hydropower capability on a piece of the Brahmaputra, citing a senior government.
Yan Zhiyong, chairman of state-owned Power Construction Corporation of China, talking at an trade convention, mentioned plans to dam the river have been a “historic opportunity”.
“Formally, we are telling them (the Chinese) that any project you undertake, should not cause an adverse impact on India. They have given an assurance, but we don’t know how long their assurance will last,” Mehra mentioned.
Hydro initiatives on Asia’s nice rivers have been a rising supply of regional tensions lately. In Southeast Asia, China has confronted accusations a sequence of dams it has constructed on the Mekong have worsened drought in downstream nations, which Beijing denies.
India can be involved if the Chinese constructed a dam round a so-called “great bend”, the place the Yarlung curves southward earlier than getting into India and the place the river positive factors substantial quantity of water, mentioned Sayanangshu Modak, a researcher on the New-Delhi based mostly Observer Research Foundation think-tank.
This area, nonetheless, can also be geologically unstable, making potential dam building difficult, he mentioned.
In Bangladesh, Sheikh Rokon, secretary basic of surroundings campaigners Riverine People, mentioned multilateral dialogue must be held earlier than China builds any dams.
“China’s downstream neighbours have a legitimate cause for concern. Water flow will be disrupted,” he mentioned.
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