China and India's dam war in the Himalayas
Delhi's response to Beijing's plans for a huge dam in Tibet? Build a huge dam of its own right nearby

India is building a giant hydropower dam near the Siang river to counter a huge Chinese dam further north.
But this latest move in a tit-for-tat saga of water geopolitics between the two nations is seen as a threat by the millions of people who live and work in the surrounding areas, or further downstream in Bangladesh.
'Dam for a dam'
India's $13.2 billion (£10.6 billion) Siang Upper Multipurpose Project will "create a reservoir that can hold nine billion cubic metres of water and generate 11,000 megawatts of electricity", said Al Jazeera.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
And news of these construction plans comes a mere month after Beijing approved the building of its "most ambitious – and the world's largest –dam over the Yarlung Zangbo river, in Tibet's Medog county", just before it enters Indian territory (where it's known as the Siang river).
India says its dam will serve as a "buffer" in case of "excess and sudden water releases from dams in China", said The Diplomat, but Beijing has "downplayed" Delhi's concerns, insisting that detailed studies were carried out to make sure the new Chinese dam would "not have any negative effects on downstream countries".
For all this "dam for a dam" water war, relations between the two nations along their disputed Himalayan border are not currently at boiling point. In recent years, there have been skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops in the area but 2024 "witnessed a thaw", with both sides "withdrawing troops from two flashpoints", said VOA News.
The troop withdrawals have set ties between New Delhi and Beijing "in the direction of some improvement", according to Subrahmanyan Jaishankar, India's foreign minister, but mutual mistrust "remains a key hurdle" to more friendly relations, said the US news site.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
'Dangerous power tussle'
Either way, there's plenty of concern about India's plans in India itself. Locals in the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project area "have warned that at least 20 villages will be submerged" and two dozen more will be partly flooded, uprooting thousands of residents, said Al Jazeera
And, as a result of "this dangerous power tussle" over water resources, the "presence of two giant dams" in a region of the Himalayas that's prone to earthquakes "poses serious threats to millions of people" in India and Bangladesh.
Amid "intensifying resistance" from locals, the state government has sent in paramilitary forces – though there have not been any clashes yet.
The effects of climate change could "make these tensions" much more "dangerous and potentially destabilising in the upcoming decade", Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director at the Wilson Center, a US think tank, told Al Jazeera.
What's needed is a "comprehensive water-sharing agreement between China and India", said Rouhin Deb in The Indian Express, with the current "unilateral assurances" replaced by a "binding" formal framework.
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
6 sought-after homes in San Francisco
Feature Featuring a 1900 painted lady Victorian North of the Panhandle and views of the Golden Gate Bridge in Russian Hill
-
Film reviews: The Long Walk, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, and The Baltimorons
Feature Young men must keep moving or else, the avowed capper to a beloved British series, and an unlikely romance takes hold on Christmas Eve
-
The Taliban wages war on high-speed internet
THE EXPLAINER A new push to cut nationwide access to the digital world is taking Afghanistan back to the isolationist extremes of decades past
-
China: Xi seeks to fill America’s void
Feature Trump’s tariffs are pushing nations eastward as Xi Jinping focuses on strengthening ties with global leaders
-
Kim Jong Un’s triumph: the rise and rise of North Korea’s dictator
In the Spotlight North Korean leader has strengthened ties with Russia and China, and recently revealed his ‘respected child’ to the world
-
'Total rat eradication in New York has been deemed impossible'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'Is it OK to be happy when the world is falling apart?'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Did Trump just push India into China's arms?
Today's Big Question Tariffs disrupt American efforts to align with India
-
Can anyone save Jimmy Lai?
Today's Big Question 'Britain's shameful inaction' will mean it's partly 'responsible' if Hong Kong businessman dies in prison
-
'The question is what it does for the ecosystem'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'Enforcement of rulings remains spotty at best'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day