China began constructing a huge dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River near the disputed border with the Indian state Arunachal Pradesh – which is a claim of Beijing – Chinese Lee Kuang attended a ceremony of this month earlier this month.
This has provoked the alarm in India, given both environmental risk and potential profit, which offers China on water flow in North East and Bangladesh.
The estimated $ 170 billion (€ 147.4 billion) hydropower project aims to generate 300 kWh power, mainly supplies for transmission to other parts of China and meets local demand in Tibet. It exceeds the capacity of the giant three Goraj Dam, which is currently the largest in the world.
Some experts and former diplomats believe that the dam is likely to renew the tension between India and China, despite the signs of vigilant reform in recent relations, the boundaries search for anxiety.
Long -time border dispute
The two countries have accused each other of trying to seize the region with their actual limits, known as the Line of Real Control (LAC), claiming India that 3.488 klk (2,167 mi) is long and China says it is short.
After years of stress, the two countries have renewed efforts to normalize relations.
In January, the two sides agreed to resume flights after about five years. Three months later, special representatives of India and China decided to resume pilgrimage and border trade and move forward.
However, the dam project introduces a major new mistake line, as ecological changes in the landscape are expected to trigger a series of geopolitical and environmental issues related to houses and demographics in the lower Himalayas.
India expert level mechanism (ELM) -A bilateral data sharing is considered, given the scale of the dam project, as the ELM mainly provides information during the monsoon season, when the flood is a major risk.
“In the long run, as India’s argument, it will be important not only to the soil fertility in Assam and Bangladesh, which will affect irrigation,” told by Associate Professor, D.W.
The dam “affects crop yield and agricultural productivity, and compromises the ecosystem of the river,” said Yellery.
In the estimate of Yellery, China’s approach to transboundary rivers and China’s unilaterally changing the ecosystem of the river is environmentally and diplomatically disastrous.
Is there a risk of exploitation of water?
Yellery said, “From a legal aspect, China is doing a hooliganism to neglect its responsibility to preserve the river flow due to geopolitical ambitions,” saying that it has already had a profound impact on India’s strategic view in the border negotiations.
China took a uniform stance on the Mekong River, which claimed to be controlled upwards, constructing several dams. Since the mid -1980s, China has built 11 large dams on Mekong (Lansang), and is running more.
Atul Kumar, a Chinese expert and partner at the Observer Research Foundation, said, “China has not entered the Repairian Agreement with any of its neighbors, even though it controls the headwork of most major rivers in Asia.”
Kumar said, “Beijing has taken a uniform stance in the Yarlung Tsangpo case and has not placed India and Bangladesh without any dam projects. Even hydrological data sharing, a harmless technical details, often depends on bilateral relations and often lasts untreated stress,” Kumar said.
A statement by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said that the project “will not have any negative impact on the downstream area” during a media briefing last week, with doubt last week.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu saw the Chinese Mega Dam Project as a “Water Bomb” and an existential threat that is a bigger issue than the military threat.
‘Downstream Destruction’
“The issue is that China cannot be trusted. No one knows what they can do,” Khandu told the agency PTI, saying that China is not a signator for the International Water Treaty that can thorn it to follow global norms.
Kumar became the risk of the failure of the dam, which “will always remain a tick bomb for the downstream areas in Northeast India and Bangladesh.”
Kumar said, “In an unstable and earthquake-prone Himalayas, a natural disaster, conflict or sabotage can also bring destruction in the downstream area,” Kumar said.
Former diplomatic Anil Wadhwa called for a consultant system and said that China should disclose the details of the dam’s capacity, water flow and alignment, once the construction is complete.
“It is necessary that India makes all the defensive measures in Arunachal Pradesh as soon as possible,” Wadhwa told DW.
“Local opposition should be compensated and open communication with the affected community will help spiral the issue as we have seen with other mega projects in the country.”
The feeling echoed by former diplomat Ajay Biskia, who told DW, “India’s recent history and business of business as a geopolitical tool as a geopolitical tool, India should make China weapons.”
“While China’s desire to do so is clear, its ability and technical feasibility is not yet the sea. To reduce that risk, India must assess and play the worst position,” Biskia concluded.
Edited by: Keith Walker
