China s Hydropower Strategy: Threats, challenges and responses Monday, February 08, 2021 By: ET
The recent project of China to construct a dam in a region located in the Tibet Autonomous Region known as Medog County, as a part of generating renewable energy initiatives, has drawn heightened tensions to the states on India s border. This has been another addition to the construction of dams along the mainstream of the Yarlung Tsangpo which began long back in 2010. The new dam could help generate up to 60 gigawatts of power, three times that of central China’s Three Gorges Dam, which has the largest installed hydropower capacity in the world now. The project has drawn more tensions on the downstream states of India owing to the project as this will harm its agriculture and water resources and will even drop an unfavourable seismological and ecological impact.
Ering added that Chinas proposed mammoth hydropower project in Medog county of Tibet will be a great threat to India and negatively impact Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and other states. The proposed dam threatens the complete inundation of low-lying areas in Arunachal Pradesh.