Tibetan concern over Tsangpo dams

Aiming to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2060 and proposing an engineering marvel to the global community, China started the construction of  a colossal  hydropower dam in Tibet prompting cautious observation with concerns from India and Bangladesh. Soon after Chinese Premier Li Qiang attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the dam on Yarlung Zangbo/ Tsangpo (Brahmaputra in India)  river at Medog locality of Tibet autonomous region on 19 July 2025, opposition voices started emerging. The Communist party-led Beijing administration projected the dam as the world's largest hydropower project with an investment of   USD 167.8 billion and optimum potential of generating nearly 300 billion kilowatt-hours  of electricity every year. It’s also expected to generate income of USD 3 billion annually meant for the Tibetan region. Beijing had already constructed and commissioned a number of small dams on Tsangpo before planning for the gigantic Medog power station. After concerns floated by lower riparian nations namely  India and Bangladesh, the  Tibetans residing inside and outside Tibet started demonstrating their anxiety and anger against the imperialist Communist administration in Beijing. Tibetan Buddhists remain concerned over the mega-dam projects in their territory as those may pose serious threats to the fragile environment after disrupting the natural flow of rivers, impacting their culture and ways of life and finally disrupting their traditional livelihoods. So the freedom aspiring Tibetans continue their fights for a genuine & greater autonomy so that they can safeguard their religious, cultural and political rights. Thousands of agitating Tibetans were detained after their  demonstrations against those dams. 

However, Beijing has gone ahead with its heavy resource exploitation programs in the Tibetan plateau ignoring its recognized forest and wildlife reserves. Often called Third Pole on Earth, Tibet feeds a number of rivers (including the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Yangtze, Mekong, etc which flow through Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam) supporting over 1.5 billion populace living in the south & southeast Asian nations. Beijing’s continuous hydro-electric activities in the seismically active Tibetan plateau are apprehended to put millions of people in the lower riparian countries under risk while managing their agriculture, fish-farming, water transportation  and daily consumption. The Chinese foreign ministry on 23 July defended  its decision to go ahead with the Medog hydropower project as it falls ‘fully within China's sovereignty’ and  aims to speed up clean energy development as well as proactively responding to climate change. The view was denounced by the exiled Tibetans in India stating that the matter of sovereignty was dragged by Beijing to pursue the  forceful rule of communist China and dominations over the natural resources of Tibet by subjugating the rights and voices of Tibetans over the resources of their motherland. Regarding the Beijing’s assurance of ‘no major riparian impacts on downstream regions’ as the project was accepted after  rigorous scientific evaluations, the Tibetans put a question mark over the sincerity of the communist regime, which considers all matters related to the rivers in a forcefully occupied territory remain under its sovereign power. The exiled Tibetans also fear that any major earthquake in the seismic zone would devastate the downstream localities.

Earlier, the Hong Kong-based English newspaper South China Morning Post editorialized the issue  arguing that transparency would be a key to ease out regional concerns over the mega dam. The influential newspaper in an editorial stated that when the Chinese Premier broke ground for the mega-dam’s construction, he actually marked the start of one of the most extraordinary infrastructure projects across the world. With delicate diplomatic handling, this ‘project of the century’ can build goodwill and help south Asia’s water-dependent economies, asserted the editorial, adding that the project is expected to  benefit not only the local Tibetan economy, but also regional development with the capacity of supplying clean power to 300 million people (including the residents of nearby countries like Nepal, Bhutan, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

However, the lack of transparency regarding the colossal project's design and post-disaster impact studies will always hunt the people living in Tibet as well as in India and Bangladesh. Both New Delhi and Dhaka need to come forward for raising the concern in front of Beijing together. And it should be done urgently.

Nava Thakuria is a senior journalist based in Guwahati and has been in the profession for more than three decades. His focus areas remain the socio-political and environmental issues of eastern Bharat. Often his articles are used by various media outlets based in different parts of south & southeast Asia.