By Kaveesha Fernando
ITANAGAR, India (CWBN)_India is considering building a 10-gigawatt (GW) hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh to counterbalance the effects of China’s proposed hydropower projects in Tibet along the Brahmaputra river. India fears that the Chinese project will have adverse effects on Arunachal Pradesh such as water scarcity or flash floods.
T.S. Mehra, a senior official in India’s federal water ministry, told a news agency that India needed to neutralize the damage caused by the reported Chinese projects. “The need of the hour is to have a big dam in Arunachal Pradesh to mitigate the adverse impact of the Chinese dam projects,” he said. The proposed project will have the capacity to store a large amount of water.
Reports emerged over the weekend on Chinese media of plans to “implement hydropower exploitation in the downstream of the Yarlung Zangbo River” in Tibet. Yarlung Zangbo is the Chinese name for the Brahmaputra River. China says the proposed project will generate clean energy and help China lower its carbon emissions.
China and India are already in a headlock with regards to the Ladakh region which both claim as their own. Experts fear that the hydropower projects will cause another similar standoff in the region.
Edited by Elishya Perera
