The MADOG project - China's water weapon

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The Chinese have already managed to build 3 dams within a distance of 24 Km over the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, which is known as the Brahmaputra River in India. The Brahmaputra ranks only second to the Amazon in terms of discharge and sediment yields — factors that severely affect flooding in the lower-lying areas.


Now, China is working on its new dam, which is said to be called the Medog Project. The increasing rapid speed of dam constructions, which includes at least 8 new dams over the Bhramputra River which are situated at higher altitudes has raised two concerns for India;

1.      These dams can be used as weapons, the attempt to control the water supply of the river which flows down to India and then Bangladesh, is a problem as Bhramputra accounts for 30% of India’s fresh water. China might use these dams to stop the water supply or flood the rivers of India and Bangladesh.

2.      These infrastructures are close to the border of India, and obviously to build these dams, China will build roads to the region, which can be considered another security threat.

The Three Gorges Dam in central China now has the biggest installed hydroelectric capacity in the world; the new dam might contribute to producing up to 60 gigawatts of power, which is three times that amount. A clean, renewable, and carbon-free electricity supply of 300 billion kWh per year could be obtained from the new dam. Yan Zhiyong, chairman of the Power Construction Corporation of China, said the power generated would help Beijing reach its clean energy goals and boost water security.

China has been saying that the moto to build these dams is to generate clean electricity, and will help China get to its goal of carbon neutrality by 2060.  But it can be simply understood that these dams can and are objected to be used as weapons against India.

India and China do not share a signed water treaty, hence they used to share hydrographic data with each other, to share the information about the river flow, and when the water is needed and when not. In the post-Doklam incident, China refused to share the hydrographic information with India and Bangladesh. This led to flood instances in Assam, which India was not ready for, and in Galwan Valley Beijing tried to stop the flow of water to India.

These instances and the obvious Chinese nature make it quite predictable that India with Bangladesh will face issues with China over the Brahmaputra water. China has been advised by India to make sure that any development in upstream areas does not negatively impact the interests of downstream states. In the meantime, to lessen the negative effects of the Chinese dam, India is considering the possibility of constructing a 10 gigawatt (GW) hydropower project in the Dibang valley in Arunachal Pradesh.

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