(TibetanReview.net, Jan14’25) –The dangers of building any dam in a known and acknowledged seismically active earthquake-prone zone does not bear any mentioning. Nevertheless, China has pushed ahead with its decision to build the world’s largest dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo river at a site just before it enters India. This has led experts to suggest that with it, China looks to kill three birds with one stone for insidious reasons.
By building the dam, reportedly the world’s most expensive infrastructure project of its kind, China intends to end the Tibet issue, weaponise water, and gain control over downstream countries like India and Bangladesh, reported news18.com Jan 13, citing top intelligence sources.
“The construction will be dangerous and will impact geology because drilling will hit tectonic plates, which could cause earthquakes,” the report cited them as saying.
Besides, the construction will lead to displacement of communities from the region and this will have impact on security of the region. “This will create major imbalance and ultimately damage the regional balance, economic stability and security.”
Also, the construction is taking place very close to India’s border – just five kilometres away in Gelling, Upper Siang, 5.75 kilometres from Gelling village, 1.62 kilometres from the McMahon Line, and 35 kilometres from Medog town in the Nyingtri City of Tibet, the report said.
The sources have warned: “The dam construction is a strategic project of China and Chinese have clear advantage to store or divert the flow of the river system. The Chinese have never worked on any project without a purpose. This dam will serve as a tool where both India and Bangladesh will suffer in the times of stand-off like the recent one after Galwan and Doklam.”
Besides, “China’s intent may be to divert water from multiple water reservoirs under the project, which will dry the regions of Tibet. In case China does this, the river coming to India — which is Siang — will also lose its water flow and impact both Assam and Bangladesh.”
The sources have also said that by building dams in the Tibetan plateau, China will gain significant upstream leverage over multiple neighbouring countries to which the rivers flow.
The report said New Delhi was already aware of the dangers and taking measures to deal with the long-term threats arising from it.
“Special Representative-level talks are going to discuss all these issues and we will take it forward. We have also announced some dams in Arunachal Pradesh in light of developments in our areas and tackling Chinese threat,” the sources said.
Even without the earthquake danger, the sheer size of the dam represents a threat in other ways, besides the transnational effect on the environment an ecology. NASA scientists have warned that China’s Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station, has the potential to slightly alter Earth’s rotation. The massive dam, which spans the Yangtze River in Hubei province, has caused a measurable change in Earth’s rotation by slowing it down by 0.06 microseconds per day, reported the republicworld.com Jan 13.
While the change is minuscule and not noticeable in daily life, it is scientifically significant.
NASA’s Benjamin Fong Chao has explained, “Redistribution of mass within the Earth’s system produces an effect on Earth’s rotation. While the delay of 0.06 microseconds per day may seem negligible, it is a measurable consequence of this redistribution.”
The principle behind this effect, it was explained, is that moving mass closer to the poles accelerates Earth’s rotation, whereas shifting it toward the equator slows it down.
This shocking discovery by NASA reveals effects of large-scale human activities on natural systems. As China plans to build an even larger dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo, the potential for further impacts on Earth’s rotation and environment becomes a topic of concern, the report said.