Editor’s Pick: Is China weaponising the Yarlung Zangbo?

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

China has made public a plan to build a dam in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river before it crosses the border from Tibet into Arunachal Pradesh and flows on to become the Brahmaputra. The plan is mentioned in the draft of China's new five-year plan, which is set to be passed in the National People's Congress, the country's ceremonial legislature.

While China has one operational hydropower project and three others under development in the upper and middle parts of the river, previous plans for a dam in the lower reaches had failed to be cleared. However, in November last year a hydroelectric company had entered into an agreement with the Tibetan regional government to build a dam in the lower reaches. While the exact position of the dam is not known, the chairman of the hydroelectric company has spoken of a 50-km section on the 'Great Bend' of the Yarlung Zangbo in Medog county of Tibet which has the potential for generating three-times the power generated by the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. After the 'Great Bend', the river flows into Arunachal as the Siang river and turns into the Brahmaputra in Assam.

Both India and Bangladesh, the lower riparian states, have cause to be concerned with the new dam. They are dependent on the water from the Brahmaputra and China's ability to control the flow of that water has economic and strategic implications. It is entirely possible that China will use water as a negotiating tactic in future dialogues. There are reports that indicate that it has done so to south east Asian countries with the Mekong river. These possibilities are what make the story important.

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