Go-Ahead for big Hydropower Project in Arunachal Pradesh

With China seemingly on a dam-constructing spree over the Brahmaputra, including one near the point where the river enters India, the government has given the go-ahead for a big Hydropower Project in Arunachal Pradesh to mark India’s stake in a river that is in many ways a lifeline of the strategic northeast.

Officials said China’s 510 MW capacity Zangmu dam, being built on the Brahmaputra bend section, ‘will be completed in three-four years’ and India needs to push its project to counter China even as it has taken up the issue of Beijing’s ‘flurry of dam-building’ at the ‘highest level’. The Zangmu dam, said to measure over 100 m, would supply water to China’s dry regions in the north, but it would starve the Indian state of Assam and neighbouring Bangladesh of water in the summer months, water officials and experts said.

The government has given clearance to the 800 MW Tawang-II hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh this week, paving the way for its implementation, according to officials. The project had been pending clearance a long time. The hydro power project would help to mark the stakes of India, a lower riparian country, in a crucial river, especially in the absence of a water sharing treaty with China, according to officials.

China has announced plans to build three dams Dagu, Jiacha and Jiexu on the river last month – part of its aggressive planning to provide for energy and water needs of its 1.3 billion people. Beijing has assured New Delhi that the new dam projects will not affect water flow to India. ‘India has for a long time been aware of the Zangmu dam. We have seen Google Earth images and have got information from our agencies about ongoing dam construction,’ one official said, declining to be named.

One water official blamed ‘lack of coordination’ among government departments on working out an effective way on how to tackle the ‘urgent’ issue, implying that the government, particularly the external affairs ministry, may be downplaying its adverse repercussions on India.

‘One day the dam will be ready, what then are we going to do?’ the official asked. ‘We need to create our own resources,’ he added. China has gone about very systematically in creating the dams, despite the inhospitable terrain. ‘They have created a railway network and a road network — at a height of 4,000 mt above sea level — with numerous bridges close to the dam site.