The Pioneer
MS Menon
October 23, 2015
New Delhi has reasons to be worried by the fast pace with which China is building dams along rivers that impact India
Faced with an acute shortage of water and energy resources to meet the needs of a burgeoning population, China has turned to exploit the Tibetan rivers and is now in a damming spree in the Brahmaputra river (Yarlung Tsangpo) to fulfil its increasing needs. Hence after constructing the two inter-linking canals, the eastern and the central routes, to transfer water from the water endowed south to the arid northern areas in 2014, it has operationalised recently the Zangmu project, the largest hydropower facility located in the middle reaches of the river, raising concerns for India.
This project is to be followed by five more dams upstream for power generation. The Shuomatan project, the Great Bend project near Indian border, is also being planned by the Chinese to divert the Brahmaputra waters to its north areas through the third link canal, the western route.
Though our neighbour has been insisting time and again that their projects being run-of-the river schemes would not affect downstream flows, the deep reservoirs built with sufficiently large storage capacities at such projects and the highly snow melt yield at the sites could be diverted by the Chinese through tunnel intakes to create artificial water scarcity downstream. Further, simultaneous opening of the project gates could result in man-made floods downstream. However, China has assured that it would be providing more river flow data as per the ‘Understanding’ signed in 2013 and that India need not be unduly perturbed over Chinese projects in Yarlung Tsangpo.
A perusal of the existing ‘Understanding’ would reveal that it deals only with regard to exchange of flow data between the countries, and hence, it is not a guarantee to allay our fears of floods and water scarcity in Brahmaputra, arising particularly during conflicts.
For taking care of such situations, we have to have a high dam with a storage capacity adequate to absorb the floods from upstream and also to contain high water level fluctuations in the river due to indiscriminate operation of upstream Chinese reservoirs, as presently there are no such structures downstream in the river. Therefore, such a project is strategically important for India.
Looking at the experience of the Mekong river basin countries with China, we should not remain complacent with the ‘Understanding’ and the assurances offered by
our neighbour. We need to put the country’s strategies in place well in time, so that our national interests are insured against future developments. This is all the more necessary since projects like the High Dam take years to be implemented to address the concerns arising out of the Chinese projects.
However, our relevant ministry is yet to start work. Leave alone construction, even preliminary works for taking up this strategically important project are still to be initiated by the authorities. In fact, succumbing to the diktats of environmental activists and groups, authorities have put a complete ban on the design and approval of new water resource development projects, till the committee set up by the Government some time back submits its report on environmental flows (e-flows) required for all the rivers in the country. Hence, all such projects, including the Brahmaputra High Dam, the river-linking project, the India-Nepal Pancheshwar project etc, irrespective of whether they are strategically important or not, will have to wait till the committee’s report on e-flow is finalised!
Unfortunately, even after conceiving this project more than a decade ago in the aftermath of floods resulting from the failure of a Chinese dam in 2000, our authorities continue to be lackadaisical in their approach regarding the construction of the project. This is sure to cost heavily to the country since, for want of a storage dam we would have to depend on China for the release of waters during the dry season and for protection from floods during the wet season.
Added to this situation is the likely security threats arising from the Tibetan liquid bombs during periods of conflicts with our neighbour. We cannot ignore history.
