Plans for a series of huge dams on the Yarlung Tsangpo River (the upper part of the river which becomes the Brahmaputra in India) have recently been announced by China. Built as part of China’s hopes to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, the dams could potentially dwarf the huge Three-Gorges Dam. 

However, the river in question is important for several countries along its course and supports some of the most important ecosystems in Asia. Realizing this ambitious, and some might say controversial, project is going to require some very savvy diplomacy, and careful planning indeed. 

What is the Yarlung Tsangpo Dam project?

In November of 2020, the Chinese state-owned media announced plans for the construction of a series of new hydro electrical power plants in the foothills of the Himalayas. Billed as potentially the world’s biggest (once complete), the dam is set to be a massive engineering undertaking and a very controversial one too. 

The Yarlung Tsangpo Dam project will be, it is been announced, a 60-gigawatt mega-dam that may, so it is claimed, bigger than the mighty Three-Gorges Dam. The selected site is on the Yarlung Tsangpo river (known as the Brahmaputra in India), which is one of the world’s highest major rivers. 

From its source in the glaciers of the Manasarovar Lake region of the Tibetan Plateau, the river begins at heights of over 16,404 feet (5km) and snakes its way from west to east through the Himalayan mountain range. The river runs along, roughly speaking, a massive geological rift created by the impact of the Eurasian plate, and cuts through the Tibetan Plateau until it meets the point where the Himalayas, the Nyenchen Tanglha, and Hengduan mountains meet.

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