Chinese Dam Ticking Bomb, CM Prema Khandu Warns Dam Could Devastate Siang And Brahmaputra Regions

11th July 2025 at 12:58 PM

2 minutes read

The world's largest hydropower dam coming up on the Yarlung Tsangpo in China's Tibet lies just about 50 kilometres from the Indian border.

New Delhi : The world’s largest hydropower dam coming up on the Yarlung Tsangpo in China’s Tibet lies just about 50 kilometres from the Indian border. The $137-billion project will reportedly generate 60,000 MW of power, and dwarf even China’s Three Gorges Dam. However, the massive project remains cloaked in secrecy.

Despite reports of the dam’s approval in 2024 in Medog County, Beijing’s lack of transparency has kept much of the project shrouded in secrecy. This has heightened regional tensions too. For Arunachal Pradesh, the dam poses an “existential threat”, as sudden water release could flood the Siang and Brahmaputra rivers, while restricted flows could severely impact water availability, experts warn.

The concerns came even as India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan, and some Chinese and Pakistani leaders cautioned India that Beijing could turn off its tap as it is a lower riparian state when it comes to the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra system. Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu described China’s mega-dam as a grave concern, labelling it a “water bomb” and an “existential threat” surpassing even military risks from Beijing.

No one knows what China might do. It could even use this as a sort of water bomb”, given its non-signatory status to international water treaties, Khandu said on July 8. He highlighted the Medong Dam’s potential to disrupt the Siang and Brahmaputra rivers, critical for Arunachal, Assam, and Bangladesh. To negate the ill effects of a potential Chinese misadventure and be prepared for any eventualities, Khandu revealed that Arunachal Pradesh has proposed the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project to the Central Government to ensure water security and put it up as a defence mechanism.

The Chinese dam’s location at the Yarlung Tsangpo’s Great Bend, where the river makes a sharp U-turn into Arunachal as the Siang, raises fears of catastrophic flooding, if the waterflow is mismanaged, deliberately or otherwise. Khandu warned that if China suddenly releases water, “our entire Siang belt would be destroyed”, endangering the Adi tribe and other communities, with devastating losses to property, land, and human life.

China, as the upper riparian country, holds strategic control over the flow of rivers like the Brahmaputra, which originate in the territory in its control. This gives it the power to unilaterally divert or dam water, posing serious ecological and security threats to lower riparian nations like India and Bangladesh.