China Starts Building Mega Dam on Brahmaputra; Sparks Global Worry
New Delhi/Beijing, July 21, 2025 — This move is going to completely transform the geopolitics as well as the environment of South Asia wherein China has commenced the official construction of what would later become the largest and the largest hydro electric dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which is referred to as Brahmaputra downstream. The initiative has inspired instant panic in India and Bangladesh, which use the river to irrigate their farms, drink and generate electricity.
The Chinese premier Li Qiang presided over a historic earth-breaking ceremony at Nyingchi City of the Tibet autonomous region on July 19. The dam was praised as a milestone of Chinese efforts to go carbon-neutral, energize its economy, and achieve energy independence in state media.
Mega Infrastructure at the Roof of the World
The dam belongs to a huge project that includes five cascade hydro-stations with 60 gigawatts (GW) cumulative installed capacity. It will be almost three times more potent than the largest dam in the world currently, the Three Gorges Dam in China. Estimated across an approximate of USD 167.8 billion (1. 2 trillion yuan), the project is projected to generate more than 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and this is sufficient to power more than 300 million people.
The development is a significant moment towards ensuring that China has clean energy infrastructure development in a bid to enable it produce power in its western and less developed parts. It also enhances the efforts of Beijing in attaining maximum carbon emissions before 2030 and becoming carbon neutral by 2060.
Ripples Across Borders: India and Bangladesh on Edge
Although the Chinese government presents the project as one of the highlights of sustainable development, India and Bangladesh are increasingly alarmed about it. The Brahmaputra River is the most important freshwater supply to millions of people in northeastern India and Bangladesh. Water security, farming, and ecosystems could be disastrous at any slight interruption to their natural course.
The Ministry of External Affairs of India protested formally last week on diplomatic grounds on the basis of such close location of the project to Arunachal Pradesh which is a region claimed by China to be part of its territory. The Indian authorities pointed out that the dam is in a very susceptible ecologically sensitive and tectonically volatile area. The Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Pema Khandu, described the dam as a ticking water bomb given the fear that the dam would collapse due to an earthquake or landslide and cause loss of life down the river. It is not only a threat to the environment, but also a serious threat to national security, Khandu said.
Bangladesh at the southernmost tip of the Brahmaputra basin is afraid that the dam would starve its delta of water supplies needed to sustain its agriculture and the Sundarbans, Sundarbans mangrove forests. Before China goes any further, Dhaka has requested region consultation and transnational impact assessments.
Environmental Concerns Loom Large
The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon where the dam will be constructed is one of the most ecologically sensitive gorges on the planet and also one of the deepest. It is located in a region that is often prone to landslides and high magnitude earthquake. The scientists are apprehending that building such a huge monument in this area will cause geological instability and ecological destruction in the long run.
Not only will the dam keep water stocked up, it will keep the silt which nourishes the fields of Assam and Bangladesh, said Dr Ashok Kumar, a hydrologist with IIT Guwahati. It also prevents migration of fish and consistent natural floods required in sustaining biodiversity in rivers.
It is also possible that due to the project there are goings to be displacement of ethnic Tibetan communities as well as loss of culturally significant sites however Chinese state media has not reported the same..
A Vacuum of Agreements and Trust
At this point, there is no agreement between China, India, and Bangladesh on how this extension of the Brahmaputra River is used and this agreement has no international force. There is also no system to enforce transparency between China and India, which share minimal data on hydrology during the monsoon season, hence no legal framework that can dictate fair sharing of water.
Such distrust has heightened regional fears even more. Professor R. Ramaswamy, a geopolitical analyst of Delhi, said: We are in a classic situation of upstream unilateralism. It is in the absence of cooperation that any such move can destabilize the region.
Multilateral water governance framework International observers and green lobbies are demanding that the shared river basins of South Asia are governed through multilateral platform, given an increasing paucity and unpredictability of water resources due to climate change.
India’s Hydropower Response
India seems to be responding with its own hydro projects in Arunachals which are currently going at paces. This plan has the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project as the centerpiece and this project intends to produce more than 11.2GW of electricity. Satellite monitoring of the Chinese by the government has also increased up with efforts to have increased international scrutiny.
R.K. Singh, Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy said, India will not be a bystander. Our projects will make sure that we have control over our water resources at the same time strengthening our national energy security.”
The International Perspective
The dam has drawn some eyebrows both in the environmental and diplomatic circles across the globe. The United Nations has once again urged all countries with transboundary rivers to embrace the inclusive, cooperative and sustainable water governance systems. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) cautioned the ecological dangers of the initiative would surpass the benefits associated with it.
Never has the planet ever experienced such environment crises. It is no longer a viable solution of using mega-dams in frail states, said Lian Wang, an Asia policy coordinator of WWF.
Looking Forward: Progress or Provocation?
As the construction gets officially underway and the process is presumably supposed to continue till the year 2033, every eye will now be on how China manages its infrastructural ambitions and diplomatic obligations. The success of this project will turn out to be a blueprint of clean energy or a potential source of a regional conflict depending on the readiness of China to interact with its neighbours.
A senior official in India Ministry of Jal Shakti said, China should understand that rivers don not recognize boundaries. It is only through a dialogue, data-sharing and an initiative to peaceful cooperation we will be able to ensure that development is not a sacrifice to the disaster.
With the most ambitious dam ever under construction at the rooftop of the world rising, the perception in the global community is hopeful yet at the same time paranoid, as to whether or not this will result into a new initiative or a triggering of a warning.