China is building the world’s largest Medog Dam on the Brahmaputra in Tibet. Chinese geologists have warned that it is on an active seismic zone. Its rupture threatens devastating floods in the northeastern states of India and Bangladesh.
Beijing: A big news has come out which raises concerns for India. Serious questions have been raised regarding the safety of the world’s largest hydroelectric dam which China is building on the Brahmaputra river in Tibet. A study by geologists of China itself has revealed that this huge Medog Dam is being built just above an active fault line i.e. active seismic zone. This study has been done under the supervision of the official Geological Survey of China, which has warned that this mega dam, which is just 50 kilometers away from the Arunachal Pradesh border, is located in a very dangerous place.
This report has been published by South China Morning Post quoting China’s ‘Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology’ journal. According to this report by scientists from Chengdu University of Technology and China Geological Survey, there is an active seismic zone just below the dam site. This is a big challenge for the design of the dam, its associated tunnels and bridges. This area is one of the most earthquake prone areas of the Himalayas. An earthquake of 6.9 magnitude has also occurred here in the year 2017. Scientists say that due to frequent earthquakes the rocks here have become very weak, which will adversely affect the earth’s ability to bear the heavy weight of the dam.
China is spending about 137 billion dollars on this project and the target is to generate 60,000 MW electricity from it. It will be three times more powerful than China’s famous Three Gorges Dam. This project was approved in December 2024. The study warns that when the dam is ready and filled with water, a large-scale landslide may occur in that area. The texture of the soil here is very loose and weak. When water accumulates, moisture in the soil will increase and combined with the possibility of earthquake, this can cause major devastation. Therefore, experts say that very high safety standards will have to be adopted during its construction and operation. If this huge dam and its reservoir collapses in such a large seismic zone, the consequences for the north-eastern states of India and Bangladesh could be dire.
India has already expressed concern that China can control the flow of water of Brahmaputra river through this dam. However, experts believe that if China stops the flow of water, many of its own areas will also be flooded. Moreover, only 10 to 15 percent of the total water of Brahmaputra comes from Tibet. The bulk of the rest comes from India’s tributaries and monsoon rains.