Poonam Sharama
Guwahati, April 8, 2025 — In a chilling alert that has sent shockwaves through environmental and strategic communities, Arunachal Pradesh MP Tapir Gao has raised alarm over China’s huge and contentious Great Bend Dam project, terming it nothing less than a “water bomb” that will destroy Northeast India. Addressing the International Seminar on Ensuring Water Security, Ecological Integrity, and Disaster Resilience in the Sub-Himalayan Region organized in Guwahati, Gao gave a stern and urgent warning: the future of the Brahmaputra River and millions depending on it is in the balance.
The Great Bend Dam, an engineering behemoth that China is building on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet — which becomes the Brahmaputra as it enters India — is being touted as the largest hydroelectric project in the world. The proposed 9.5-kilometer-long dam, towering at an estimated 9,500 meters above sea level, forms the centerpiece of China’s ambitious water diversion plan to redirect water to its arid north via the Yellow River.
But beneath the rhetoric of “carbon neutrality” and “renewable energy” is a profoundly sinister reality, warns Gao: a conscious act of ecological engineering potentially capable of casting Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and much of the Northeast into environmental and humanitarian catastrophe.
If the river is diverted, the Brahmaputra will be drained dry,” Gao declared in his stirring speech. “This will be not only an environmental catastrophe — it will be a death knell for tens of millions whose lives rely on the river’s waters for drinking, agriculture, and fishing.
Speakers at the seminar repeated Gao’s alarming warnings, adding that the dam’s construction could drastically cut water supply to downstream areas, destabilize aquatic environments, annihilate fish populations, and inflict life-threatening water shortages on already vulnerable communities. The delicate Himalayan ecosystem, they warned, may be taken to the edge.
China’s proposal to construct the 60,000 MW dam at a cost of an estimated **USD 137 billion** has caused alarm bells to ring not only in India but across the world. Environmentalists contend that the magnitude and siting of the dam — in a seismically active glacial region — would result in devastating flash floods, landslides, and irreparable damage to a fragile sub-Himalayan ecosystem already.
Perhaps most troubling is the lack of any official water-sharing treaty between India and China. Gao characterized this diplomatic void as a “massive blind spot” that enables China to act unilaterally, threatening lives and livelihoods downstream.
“Without a water-sharing treaty, India is exposed,” Gao said. “China can choose to divert or release water at will, and we will bear the brunt. We’ve already witnessed what can happen.”
Gao referred to a chilling illustration: the 2000 episode in which China suddenly let loose an enormous amount of water into the Siang River — a Brahmaputra tributary — triggering unexpected and severe flooding in Arunachal Pradesh. The destruction caused by that event, he cautioned, might look small compared with what the Great Bend Dam had the potential to unleash.
Gao did not hesitate to use strong language in his description of the project. “This is not a dam. It’s a water bomb— a quiet, slow-accumulating menace that can be triggered at any moment,” he said. “Its effects will not be confined to Arunachal or Assam. The consequences could resonate throughout Bangladesh, destabilizing the entire region.”
The political undertones of Gao’s words were clear. He blamed China for employing water as a weapon — a strategic instrument to put pressure and influence on neighboring nations. Critics of China’s hydropolitics have long criticized Beijing for taking advantage of its geographical control over important rivers that originate in the Tibetan Plateau.
Even with the bleak prognosis, Gao had a note of guarded optimism. He lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diplomacy in handling China and urged immediate action to counter the looming crisis.
“Our Prime Minister always keeps the national security and regional integrity as top priorities. I have complete confidence that he will take up this issue on international forums and insist that it be resolved,” said Gao.
He also called for the immediate building of a big Indian dam on the Siang River to control water flow and ward off any potential threats from China’s upstream operations. “This is a race against time. We have to do it now, or else it might be too late,” he cautioned.
Environmental and strategic analysts during the seminar labeled the dam an “existential threat” to the Northeast. They highlighted that in addition to water shortage and ecological collapse, the dam also stood to cause extensive damage to disaster preparedness in the region.
“Flash flooding, glacial lake outburst flooding (GLOFs), and rapid water discharge might increase and become more intense. The resilience of the area is already low. This dam may drive it over the edge,” said one expert.
Though China maintains the dam is one component of a larger strategy for carbon neutrality by 2060, the critics contend the price — measured in terms of environmental devastation, regional destabilization, and human misery — is just too high.
The Brahmaputra is not merely a river — it is a lifeline for millions of Indians and Bangladeshis. With its waters now threatened by the world’s most ambitious and potentially most hazardous hydroelectric scheme, the Northeast teeters on the brink of an unfolding environmental crisis.
As Arunachal’s MP Tapir Gao takes the lead in expressing the people’s grievance, the question is: Will the world wake up in time to stop this water bomb before it explodes?
The post China’s Colossal ‘Water Bomb’ Looms Over Northeast India: Arunachal MP Raises Alarm Over Great Bend Dam appeared first on Global Governance News- Asia's First Bilingual News portal for Global News and Updates.
