On February 28, the Indian authorities authorized the development of a hydropower challenge throughout the River Dibang within the Northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The $3.9 billion challenge is India’s largest-ever hydropower challenge and at a top of 278 meters, the dam would be the tallest concrete gravity dam on this planet.

Located within the Lower Dibang Valley, the Dibang Multipurpose Project (DMP) “is envisaged as a storage-based hydroelectric project with flood moderation as the key objective.”

It will generate 2,880 MW of electrical energy. This will probably be a “valuable contribution to India’s efforts to transition from coal to clean energy,” an official of the National Hydro Power Corporation, which is implementing the challenge, advised The Diplomat.

Arunachal Pradesh will obtain 12 % free energy from the challenge over its life span of 40 years, along with one other 1 % underneath the Local Area Development Fund. The state may also earn from the sale of surplus electrical energy to different states.

Besides, the DMP is anticipated to assist “moderate the flow of water” into the River Brahmaputra and stop the annual flooding of the Northeast, the NHPC official mentioned.

Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.

The Dibang River, which originates on the Indian aspect of the disputed India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh, is a tributary of the Brahmaputra, which originates in Tibet. After traversing 1,700 km in Tibet, the place it is named the Yarlung Tsangpo, the Brahmaputra flows for 920 km by means of the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India, and for 260 km in Bangladesh earlier than emptying its waters into the Bay of Bengal.

The Brahmaputra accounts for almost 30 percent of India’s freshwater sources and 40 % of its hydropower potential. With China constructing dams at a number of factors throughout the Yarlung Tsangpo – one in all these dams will probably be positioned on the “Great Bend” the place the river makes a spectacular U-turn earlier than coming into India, India has plans to assemble a number of dams on the Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh.

Indian officers have linked the constructing of storage dams on worldwide rivers to establishing “rights over that quantum of water as a riparian state.” Reports within the Indian media counsel that the DMP can also be aimed toward strengthening India’s user rights within the Brahmaputra river system.

However, there could also be extra to India’s dam-building spree in Arunachal Pradesh than energy era, prevention of floods and establishing consumer rights.

Pointing out that “India already has user rights as a lower riparian on the transboundary [Brahmaputra] river,” Satu Limaye, president and director, East West Center in Washington, argues in his chapter within the guide “Raging Waters: China, India, Bangladesh, and Brahmaputra River Politics,” which he co-authored with Nilanthi Samaranayake and  Joel Wuthnow, that it’s “more likely” that India’s dam constructing exercise on the Brahmaputra is aimed toward “consolidating India’s rights to the territory where the transboundary Brahmaputra flows rather than to the waters of the river per se.“

The Brahmaputra and several of its tributaries like the Dibang run through or originate in Arunachal Pradesh, where China claims around 90,000 sq km of territory.

In addition to dams, India is building roads, bridges and tunnels in this border state. While such infrastructure is being developed to facilitate faster mobilization of Indian troops and weaponry to the disputed India-China border, it also serves India’s objective of asserting control over the region.

India’s construction of the DMP and other hydropower projects may bring it multiple benefits, but these come at a heavy cost.

The DMP is expected to displace thousands of people, inundate some 11,624 acres of forest and threaten wildlife, including endangered and critically endangered animals. The project is expected to severely impact the tiny Idu Mishmi tribal group. They would be displaced and separated from the mountains, forests and wildlife that shape their lives, livelihood and unique identity. They have been at the forefront of the resistance to the DMP.

Additionally, the project is situated in a highly seismic zone. Earthquakes in the region have been “catastrophic,” warns geographer Chintan Sheth.

Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.

There is concern in Bangladesh, the decrease riparian nation, that the damming of the Brahmaputra will cut back water circulate into the nation.

Besides, “upstream dam activities can have downstream consequences,” Nilanthi Samaranayake, director of the Strategy and Policy Analysis Program at CNA, a nonprofit analysis group within the Washington space, advised The Diplomat. “For example, uncertainty over sedimentation and food security outcomes raises anxiety for both India and Bangladesh. In particular, there are concerns in Bangladesh, as the lowest riparian, about water quality impacts,” she mentioned.

There is concern in downstream Assam that particles from upstream building exercise and landslides will “elevate riverbeds.” Contrary to claims that the DMP will forestall floods, the damming of the Brahmaputra might make downstream areas in Assam and Bangladesh extra susceptible to flooding.

The basis stone for the DMP was laid again in 2008. The challenge bumped into bother thereafter because it got here underneath robust resistance from native communities, seismologists and environmentalists in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and different elements of India. The protests compelled the federal government to place the challenge on maintain.

However, proponents of the DMP, together with ministers and officers in New Delhi and Arunachal Pradesh in addition to India’s highly effective huge dam foyer, systematically chipped on the resistance to the challenge. The consent of tribal protestors was “manufactured” by means of terrorizing them; they have been branded ‘Maoist’ and their resistance was damaged. The authorities has steamrolled objections and problems with concern raised by activists and specialists to offer the DMP the inexperienced sign.

Whether the choice will reignite protests stays to be seen.