China Defends Plan to Build World’s Largest Dam Over Brahmaputra River in Tibet

China to Build World’s Largest Dam: China on Friday defended its plan to build the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet and said the hydropower development in the lower reaches will not negatively affect area riparian states and safety issues have been addressed for decades.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning downplayed India's concerns on December 27, saying China implemented measures and conducted extensive research over decades.

The hydropower project will be located in the lower reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River, the Tibetan name for Brahmaputra. The dam will be built at a major gorge in the Himalayas where the river takes a U-turn before flowing into Arunachal Pradesh and then into Bangladesh.

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India has expressed concerns that the dam could give China control over the river’s flow and allow it to release large amounts of water in times of conflict, potentially flooding border areas due to the scale of the project.

“China will continue to maintain communication with countries at the lower reaches through existing channels and step up cooperation on disaster prevention and relief for the benefit of the people by the river,” she said.

The project will cost over 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) and will be the largest infrastructure project in the world, surpassing China’s Three Gorges Dam. Mao said the dam will speed up clean energy development and address climate change and extreme hydrological events.

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The dam is part of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and CPC’s long-term development plan. China had previously completed the 1.5 billion yuan ($220 million) Zam Hydropower Station, the largest in Tibet, in 2015.

India is also building a dam on Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh. Both countries had established Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) in 2006 to discuss trans-boundary rivers issues, including the sharing of hydrological data.

Data sharing was also discussed during the meeting between Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on December 18 where both sides agreed to deepen cooperation on this.

However, the Brahmaputra dam presents significant engineering challenges due to its location along a tectonic plate boundary, an area prone to earthquakes. The Tibetan Plateau, known as the “roof of the world,” is seismically active because it sits atop several tectonic plates.

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