China begins development of Tibet mega-dam

China began constructing a mega-dam on Saturday (July 19, 2025) on a river working by means of Tibet and India, with Premier Li Qiang attending the graduation ceremony, state media stated.

Beijing accredited the mission in December on the river — referred to as Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet and Brahmaputra in India — linking it to the nation’s carbon neutrality targets and financial objectives within the Tibet area.

“The electricity generated will be primarily transmitted to other regions for consumption, while also meeting local power needs in Tibet,” state information company Xinhua reported after the groundbreaking ceremony in southeastern Tibet’s Nyingchi.

Once constructed, the dam may dwarf the record-breaking Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in central China — and have a doubtlessly severe affect on tens of millions of individuals downstream in India and Bangladesh.

The mission will entail setting up 5 hydropower stations, with the whole funding estimated to be round 1.2 trillion yuan ($167.1 billion), Xinhua stated.

Indian authorities stated in January it had raised issues with China concerning the mission in Tibet, saying it would “monitor and take necessary measures to protect our interests”.

In December, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry stated that the mission wouldn’t have any “negative impact” downstream, including that China “will also maintain communication with countries at the lower reaches” of the river.

Besides downstream issues, environmentalists have additionally warned concerning the irreversible affect of such mega initiatives within the ecologically delicate Tibetan plateau.

Both India and China, neighbours and rival Asian powers, share hundreds of kilometres of disputed borders, the place tens of hundreds of troopers are posted on both facet.