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Christopher Chacko profile image Christopher Chacko

To Dam, or Not to Dam

China’s attempt to build the biggest dam in the world

To Dam, or Not to Dam
A section of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet

Summary:

  • China plans to build a mega-dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River near its contested border with India, potentially generating three times the power of the Three Gorges Dam.
  • The project raises environmental concerns, geopolitical tensions, and questions about water security for downstream regions.
  • Massive dams like these can even have global impacts, including slowing the Earth’s rotation due to their immense force.

What if I told you a dam could generate more electricity than any structure ever built, stir geopolitical tensions between nuclear powers, and even—brace yourself—slow down the Earth’s rotation? That’s not the plot of a science fiction movie; it’s China’s latest mega-project. Plans are underway to construct a colossal dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, near the contested border with India. If completed, it would dwarf the Three Gorges Dam, already the world’s largest, by generating three times as much electricity.

The potential is staggering: 70 gigawatts of power, enough to light up entire nations. But this isn’t just an engineering marvel. The Yarlung Tsangpo, known as the Brahmaputra in India, is a lifeline for millions downstream. For India, this dam could mean losing control over critical water resources—a diplomatic nightmare in a region already fraught with tension. Both nations have clashed over the border in recent years, and a China-controlled dam could become a lever in future disputes.

Three Gorges Dam Photo by CNN

Environmentalists are sounding the alarm too. The dam’s construction would devastate one of China’s richest biodiversity hotspots, a natural reserve teeming with rare species. The Yarlung Tsangpo gorge, with its thundering rapids and unique ecosystems, is a global treasure that could be irreversibly altered. And let’s not forget the hidden costs of such massive infrastructure: relocating materials and workers to this remote site, managing potential droughts caused by global warming, and stringing power lines across vast distances to deliver electricity.

Then there’s the mind-blowing science of what these mega-dams do to our planet. The Three Gorges Dam is so immense that the water it holds shifts mass on Earth, ever so slightly slowing the planet’s rotation. Imagine what a dam three times its size could do. While the effect is tiny—milliseconds over centuries—it’s a humbling reminder of how human engineering can literally alter planetary dynamics.

China claims the project will prioritize safety and environmental protection, pledging no adverse impacts on downstream countries. But can such promises hold water (pun intended) when history shows the ecological and geopolitical costs of such colossal dams? As construction plans move forward, this project could reshape not just Tibet’s landscape but the global balance of power—and perhaps even time itself.

Christopher Chacko profile image Christopher Chacko