- The announcement by the Chinese government in the last breath of last year that it will launch a large hydroelectric project in the lower basin of the Yarlung Zangbo River, which has not flooded the waters, seems to have set them on fire among us. We can say that the comments have crippled the entire scale of the alarm: that it will be the largest and most expensive in the world, that the giant dam of the Three Gorges will generate three times as much electricity...
And that the immense kinka (for example, because it will be in a region that suffers terrible earthquakes) will not only attract immense damage to the inhabitants, fauna and flora of the valley that the reservoir will occupy; and enormous dangers to the millions of Indians and Bangladeshis who live downstream. Let us not forget that some believe that it must be a means of confrontation between the two main Asian powers.
Read like this, it's hard not to lose sleep right here. However, the relationship between India and China does not appear to have caused any particular disturbance to the project during the period in which it has been operating in recent months. Although Western commentaries are passionate about blurring the potential gap. The words and the facts seem to be very far apart.
In fact, it is an ancient project, later associated with other tributaries, to generate hydroelectric power in the basin of the Tibetan Yarlung Zangbo River, which takes its name from Assam Brahmaputra in India. The reason is also easy to understand: you could say that it is the most suitable place in the world for this, since the river has a slope of about 2,500 meters in a 200-kilometer course. Therefore, it has an enormous theoretical power to generate hydroelectric energy.
The town of Medog, however, is also quite easy to understand: it is located in one of the most intricate places in the world. There, the entire course of the Yarlung Zangbo River is a steep and narrow canyon (“the largest canyon in the world,” they say); almost a hollow abyss, with constant landslides and rocky landslides, with isolated inhabitants and even rarer means of communication... With the faults that can cause violent earthquakes underneath, too.
The construction of a great dam and swamp will have great difficulty anywhere; but it may be Sisiph's mission in Medog. And those who have to dedicate themselves to it will always remember a damned word: It's about Vajont. What could happen when the swamp is completed and filled.
In reality, no technical details of the project are known; nor the exact location of the dam and its main structure and qualities. It seems, however, that the present invention may be the first step in a broader project that may involve a number of interconnected dams.
And that India’s main concern is not that China does it, but that it does not do it well enough. If I could do it right and help him to dominate the constant floods in Assam, it would do him a good favor.