Beijing, Dec 28: China on Friday defended its plan to build the world’s largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, saying the project will not “negatively affect” lower riparian states and that safety issues have been addressed through decades of studies.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning played down apprehensions about the massive project to dam the Brahmaputra River, which is called Yarlung Zangbo in Tibet. The project estimated to cost around USD 137 billion is located in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region, along a tectonic plate boundary where earthquakes occur frequently.
Mao said China carried out in-depth studies for decades and took safeguard measures.
China has always been responsible for the development of cross-border rivers, Mao told a media briefing here in response to a question on the concerns related to the dam.
She said the hydropower development there has been studied in depth for decades, and safeguard measures have been taken to ensure the project’s security and ecological environment protection.
“The project will not negatively affect the lower reaches,” she said referring to the concerns in India and Bangladesh which are the lower riparian states.
“China will continue to maintain communication with countries at the lower reaches through existing channels and step up cooperation on disaster prevention and relief for the benefit of the people by the river,” she said.
She said China’s hydropower development in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River aims to speed up the development of clean energy and respond to climate change and extreme hydrological disasters.
China on Wednesday approved the construction of the world’s largest dam, stated to be the planet’s biggest infra project on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet close to the Indian border, raising concerns in India and Bangladesh.
The hydropower project will be built in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, the Tibetan name for the Brahmaputra River, an official statement here said.
The dam will be built at a huge gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra River makes a huge U-turn to flow into Arunachal Pradesh and then to Bangladesh.
Mao said China’s hydropower development in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River aims to speed up the development of clean energy and respond to climate change and extreme hydrological disasters.
The total investment in the dam could exceed one trillion yuan (USD 137 billion), which would dwarf any other single infrastructure project on the planet, including China’s own Three Gorges Dam which is regarded as the largest in the world, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.
China has already operationalised the USD 1.5 billion Zam Hydropower Station, the largest in Tibet in 2015.