China and India’s dam war in the Himalayas

India is constructing a large hydropower dam close to the Siang river to counter an enormous Chinese language dam additional north.

However this newest transfer in a tit-for-tat saga of water geopolitics between the 2 nations is seen as a menace by the hundreds of thousands of people that dwell and work within the surrounding areas, or additional downstream in Bangladesh.

‘Dam for a dam’

India’s $13.2 billion (£10.6 billion) Siang Higher Multipurpose Mission will “create a reservoir that may maintain 9 billion cubic metres of water and generate 11,000 megawatts of electrical energy”, mentioned Al Jazeera.

And information of those development plans comes a mere month after Beijing authorised the constructing of its “most formidable – and the world’s largest –dam over the Yarlung Zangbo river, in Tibet’s Medog county”, simply earlier than it enters Indian territory (the place it is generally known as the Siang river).

India says its dam will function a “buffer” in case of “extra and sudden water releases from dams in China”, mentioned The Diplomat, however Beijing has “downplayed” Delhi’s considerations, insisting that detailed research have been carried out to ensure the brand new Chinese language dam would “not have any unfavourable results on downstream international locations”.

For all this “dam for a dam” water conflict, relations between the 2 nations alongside their disputed Himalayan border are usually not at the moment at boiling level. Lately, there have been skirmishes between Indian and Chinese language troops within the space however 2024 “witnessed a thaw”, with either side “withdrawing troops from two flashpoints”, mentioned VOA Information.

The troop withdrawals have set ties between New Delhi and Beijing “within the route of some enchancment”, in accordance with Subrahmanyan Jaishankar, India’s international minister, however mutual distrust “stays a key hurdle” to extra pleasant relations, mentioned the US information web site.

‘Harmful energy tussle’

Both means, there’s loads of concern about India’s plans in India itself. Locals within the Siang Higher Multipurpose Mission space “have warned that at the least 20 villages will probably be submerged” and two dozen extra will probably be partly flooded, uprooting hundreds of residents, mentioned Al Jazeera

And, on account of “this harmful energy tussle” over water sources, the “presence of two large dams” in a area of the Himalayas that is susceptible to earthquakes “poses critical threats to hundreds of thousands of individuals” in India and Bangladesh.

Amid “intensifying resistance” from locals, the state authorities has despatched in paramilitary forces – although there haven’t been any clashes but.

The consequences of local weather change might “make these tensions” rather more “harmful and doubtlessly destabilising within the upcoming decade”, Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director on the Wilson Heart, a US assume tank, informed Al Jazeera.

What’s wanted is a “complete water-sharing settlement between China and India”, mentioned Rouhin Deb in The Indian Specific, with the present “unilateral assurances” changed by a “binding” formal framework.