China Approves Construction of Riskiest Hydropower Project in Tibet
By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA 26, Dec: China has approved the construction of the world’s riskiest Hydropower project on Tibet’s longest river, Yarlung Tsangpo, which flows into India through Arunachal Pradesh (AP) as Siang River on Wednesday, according to an official statement by the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency.
While the report stated that the project will play a major “role in accelerating the country’s efforts to create a new development pattern and pursue high-quality development, ” and lauded it as “a green project aimed at promoting low-carbon development,” the dam, which will be constructed on the lower reaches of Yarlung Tsangpo, at which the River takes a huge U-turn (the Great Bend) around the Namchen Bawa peak has raised alarming concerns in the downstream countries.
The Siang River in AP flows into the Indian state of Assam as Brahmaputra, which then flows into Bangladesh to finally empty into the Bay of Bengal.
When completed, a 2000-meter (6,561 feet) drop from one side of the bend to the other (India ) creates a vast hydropower potential for China but a huge risk for downstream countries like India and Bangladesh.
It further perpetuates the border tension between the two Asian nuclear powers as the project sits just some kilometers away from the Indian state of AP which is largely claimed by China as “south Tibet.”
The dam is located right on the faultline between the tectonic plates of India and Eurasia, an epicentre of one of the world’s most powerful earthquakes ever recorded with a magnitude of 8.6 quake in 1950 known as the Assam-Tibet Earthquake.
Since 1901, more than 4,000 earthquakes have been recorded with magnitudes greater than 4.5 in the region.
The aggregate cost of the project is expected to be more than US$137 billion, far greater than the ‘Three Gorges Dam’ which cost $34.83 billion.
Reuters reported that the Authorities have not disclosed how many people the project would displace and how it would affect the local ecosystem.
Earlier in February, hundreds of Tibetans protesting against a Chinese dam met with a harsh crackdown with some beaten and some seriously injured, noted in a report published after months of investigation by the BBC.
Amidst these developments lies the fragile ecosystem of Tibet’s plateau, considered critically and globally significant in the context of accelerating climate change.
Tibetans in exile, represented by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), environmental organisations, and others, have intensified and expanded Tibet’s environmental campaigns internationally. They align these efforts with the global climate change movement under the theme of ‘Tibet – the Third Pole’.