Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu warned on Wednesday that the mega dam China is building on the Yarlung Tsangpo river near the state border is a matter of grave concern for India. He said the dam would be a ticking “water bomb”, an existential threat and a bigger issue than anything else apart from the military threat.
In an interview to PTI Videos, Pema Khandu said, “The issue is that China cannot be trusted. No one knows what they might do.”
“Setting aside the military threat from China, it seems to me that this is a far bigger issue than anything else. It is going to cause an existential threat to our tribes and our livelihoods. It is quite serious because China could even use this as a sort of ‘water bomb’,” he said.
The Yarlung Tsangpo dam project was announced following Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to the border region in 2021. China approved the construction of the $137 billion project in 2024. Spanning five years, it is expected to generate 60,000 MW of electricity, making it the world’s largest hydropower dam.
Pema Khandu said there would be no problem had China signed the international water treaty. Because then, he said, it would be mandatory to release a certain amount of water downstream for the basin, for aquatic and marine life.
In fact, if China was a signatory to international water-sharing agreements, this project could have been a blessing for India, he said.
“But China is not a signatory, and that is the problem… Suppose the dam is built and they suddenly release water, our entire Siang belt would be destroyed. In particular, the Adi tribe and similar groups… would see all their property, land, and especially human life, suffer devastating effects,” he said.
The chief minister said that because of this, after discussions with the Government of India, the Arunachal Pradesh government has conceived a project called the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, which will serve as a defence mechanism and ensure water security.