Chinese Dam Trouble with India: China builds new dam in Tibet which might hit flows downstream
Beijing: China, which has been engaged in conflict with India in recent years, is building a new dam in Tibet on a tributary of the Ganga, close to the tri-junction of its borders with India and Nepal, media reports said.
The dam could be used to control the flow of water downstream, new satellite imagery has revealed, reports Hindustan Times.
The development comes in the wake of China unveiling plans to build a “super” dam close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Tibet on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river, which flows into Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang and then to Assam as the Brahmaputra, reports the Indian newspaper.
It also comes at a time when satellite imagery has shown that China has substantially ramped up the creation of military and dual-use infrastructure and villages in the eastern and western sectors of the LAC.
Satellite images tweeted on Thursday by Damien Symon, a geospatial intelligence researcher at the Intel Lab, showed earth development and dam construction activity done by the Chinese side on Mabja Zangbo river in Burang county of Tibet since May 2021, the Indian newspaper reported.
Since early 2021, China has been constructing a dam on the Mabja Zangbo river just a few kilometers north of the trijunction border with India & Nepal, while the structure isn't complete, the project will raise concerns regarding China's future control on water in the region pic.twitter.com/XH5xSWirMk
— Damien Symon (@detresfa_) January 19, 2023
The images clearly depict the obstruction of the river’s path, the formation of a reservoir and an embankment-type dam.
The Mabja Zangbo river flows into the Ghaghara or Karnali river in Nepal before eventually joining the Ganga river in India.
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