Experts air fresh concern over China’s super dam in Tibet after Nepal disaster

New Delhi: Yesterday’s flash floods in Nepal that have caused massive death and destruction, sweeping away whole communities, bridges and damaging hydropower plants, raise once again the fear of an ecological disaster in the making for India owning to large scale construction of massive dams by China, especially the new mega dam project being built in Tibet’s Yarlung Zangbo river.

Yarlung Zangbo river when it reaches Asssam after entering Arunachal Pradesh in India becomes the Brahmaputra. The dam is located in China-occupied Tibet Autonomous Region’s (TAR’s) Medog or Medong which is located in seismically active zone. That is why construction of a massive dam by China in this region has such a potentially disasterous consequences for India.

Though Nepal disaster was caused by ” glacial collapse”, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), similar kind of disaster in a dam can happen because of an earthquake, and the strong possibility of such a disaster happening anytime can be gauged from the fact that the Himalayas are very young and seismically active mountain range.

” Already we have had two earthquakes of over 8 on the Richter scale during the last 150 years in the region where China is constructing the dam. Then there was no such dam but now if an earthquake of this scale, occurs, its impact could well be imagined, ” says noted water expert Himanshu Thakkar, one of the country’s leading water expert. He is currently coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People( SANDROP).

“There are very few places on this earth where earthquake of this scale has occurred,” and the scale of destruction in case of any major seismic event would be in proportion to the scale on which the dam has been constructed,” he added.

The Medog Dam is the world’s largest hydropower project, with a proposed capacity of 60,000 MW, and costing some 1 trillion Yen, or around $148 billion.

Several international studies have already cautioned against the outcomes, saying that the risks posed the Medog Dam may outweigh promised benefits. Ever since the dam has been completed in 2012, it has remained controversial for its social and environmental costs.

The dam spans more than 2 km and rises 185 metres high. If any earthquake hits the region, the resulting destruction would not remained confined to Tibet. Its impact would be strongly felt downstream regions in India and Bangladesh, say the experts.

_-India News Stream