India and China gear up for a new battle, this time over water

Beijing’s plans for a ‘super dam’ have led New Delhi to mull building a rival project at a river known as the Brahmaputra in India and Yarlung Zangbo in China

Analysts warn that such a race could spin out of control, with repercussions not just for both but also Bangladesh, where the water also flows through

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Indian Hindu devotees perform rituals at the bank of the Brahmaputra River in Guwahati, Assam India. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 2:18pm, 7 Dec 2020Updated: 9:46pm, 7 Dec 2020

Amid an unending seven-month long border stand-off between their troops and an economic decoupling, the frayed ties between India and China now have a fresh flashpoint: water.

Fuelling this new conflict is a mix of mutual mistrust, lack of transparency and an intense rivalry over one of the world’s largest rivers, known as Brahmaputra in India and the Yarlung Zangbo in China.

Late last month, China announced its intentions of building what could be its biggest hydropower project, potentially generating three times more energy than the Three Gorges project, the current largest such project in the world.

The nationalist tabloid Global Times quoted Yan Zhiyong, chairman of the Power Construction Corporation of China, as saying that such a project could produce 70 million kilowatt hours and would have “no parallel in history”.

While Beijing did not announce the exact location, it indicated that it could be near what is known as “The Great Bend”, where the river turns sharply southwards to enter the Arunachal Pradesh region in northeast India.

Many in India are concerned about the impact such a large project would have on the country’s water and food security, as well as the possible weaponisation of the water by China owing to its firm grip on the flow – by using it to cause floods or induce droughts.