China begins damming Brahmaputra

Ananth Krishnan

Indian Government has raised concerns about possible downstream impact of project

The hanging bridge on the Siang, as the Brahmaputra is called in Arunachal, is between Jidu and Tuting, about 35 km from the border with China.

China has started damming the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra river, or the Yarlung Tsangpo as it is known in Tibet, to begin construction on a 510 MW hydropower project that has raised concerns in India. The Government for the first time revealed that it has, since November 8, begun damming the Tsangpo's flow to allow work to begin on the hydropower project at Zangmu. This is the first major dam on the Brahmaputra and has been billed by the Chinese Government as a landmark hydropower generation project for Tibet's development.

A news report on Monday said the "closure of the Yarlung Zangbo river on November 12 marked the beginning of construction." Work is expected to continue beyond 2014, when the first set of generators will be put into operation. The total investment in the project is 7.9 billion yuan ($1.2 billion).

The Indian Government has raised concerns about the possible downstream impact of this project during talks with China earlier this year.

Chinese officials have assured their Indian counterparts that the project would be 'run of the river,' having little impact downstream.

China has said that its projects were only for hydropower generation, and were neither storage projects nor designed to divert the water. The Hindu