China defends plan to build world's largest dam over Brahmaputra River in Tibet

Chinese foreign ministry's spokesperson, Mao Ning, on Friday, downplayed apprehensions over the country's plan to build the world’s largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, saying that the mega project will not affect riparian states and its safety concerns have been addressed through decades of studies.

The 137-billion-dollar project is being constructed in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region located along a tectonic plate boundary. She said the world’s largest dam will not impact low-lying areas.

She said that China has always been responsible for the development of cross-border rivers and the hydropower development in Tibet has been studied in an in-depth way for decades and safeguard measures have been taken for the security of the project, and ecological and environmental protection.

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She added that the project will not affect lower reaches.

She said China will continue to maintain communication with countries in the lower reaches through existing channels and step up international cooperation on disaster prevention and relief.

China on Wednesday approved the construction of the world's largest dam, touted to be the planet's biggest infra project on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet close to the Indian border.

The dam is to be built at a huge gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra River makes a huge U-turn to flow into Arunachal Pradesh and then to Bangladesh.

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The capital required to undertake the project could exceed one trillion yuan (USD 137 billion), which would be the biggest infrastructure project on the planet ever.

The project would take at least a decade to build and require connecting to the grid further east as there’s “zero need” for this sort of energy supply in Tibet, said David Fishman, a Shanghai-based senior manager at the Lantau Group, an energy consulting firm.

“It’s a massive engineering undertaking. The river itself has excellent hydropower resources,” he added.

"Everybody downstream is going to be concerned about what it means if water flow is reduced. I know India is very anxious about it.”

(With inputs from PTI, Bloomberg)