DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

GS-II : International Relations China OBOR

08 March, 2021
6 Min Read

China to build dams on Brahmaputra River

China is building dams in the Yarlung Zangbo river

A draft of China’s new Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), which is set to be formally approved, has given the green light for the first dams to be built on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river, as the Brahmaputra is known in Tibet before it flows into India.

The draft outline of the new Five-Year Plan (FYP) for 2025 and “long-range objectives through the year 2035”, submitted before the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s ceremonial legislature, on Friday, specifically mentions the building of hydropower bases on the lower reaches of the river as among the priority energy projects to be undertaken in the next five years.
The lower reaches refer to the sections of the river in Tibet before it flows into India.
The inclusion of the projects in the draft plan suggests the authorities have given the go-ahead to begin tapping the lower reaches for the first time, which marks a new chapter in the hydropower exploitation of the river.
The FYP’s backing for the projects also suggests that a number of long-pending proposals from Chinese hydropower companies to build dams in the lower reaches, including near the border with India, may be given the green light.
On the top of a list of energy construction projects for the next five years, mentioned on page 30 of the 142-page draft document in Mandarin — it has not yet been published in English — calls for “building a hydropower base on the lower reaches of Yarlung Zangbo river”, along with “clean energy bases” in the upper and lower reaches of Jinsha river (the upper course of Yangtze river in western China).
Other major projects include the construction of coastal nuclear power plants and power transmission channels.
The high importance given to building dams on the “lower reaches” of the Yarlung Zangbo is underlined in the plan, where it is also mentioned on page 38 of the document among significant planned investments in infrastructure that serve major national strategies.
The project is also listed along with the Sichuan-Tibet railway and the national water network.

Source: TH

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