China tells India Yarlung Tsangpo mega dam in Tibet will not be at ‘expense of neighbours’

China has tried to reassure India over its plans for a mega dam in the Tibetan Plateau, which has prompted fears it will cause water shortages and damage the environment, by saying it will not try to benefit at the “expense of its neighbours”.

The dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River is expected to be the world’s largest hydroelectric project, but it has caused serious concern about the impact on the Brahmaputra – as it is known downstream in India – where it is a vital water source for millions of people.

The project also risks escalating the competition for scarce water resources, with India looking to step up its own dam-building projects, and threatens to undermine recent efforts to reduce tensions between the two countries.

Wang Lei, the chargé d’affaires at the Chinese embassy in India, tried to address these concerns last week in a newspaper article where he wrote that critics of the project were wrong to characterise it as a “Chinese weapon”.

“China sticks to the policy of forging friendships and partnerships with its neighbours. It never pursues the maximisation of unilateral interests, let alone benefits for itself at the expense of its neighbours. China does not and will never seek ‘water hegemony’,” Thursday’s article in the Indian Express said.

He added that China has established over 50 water resource management agreements with neighbouring countries and created 10 cross-border institutions to promote cooperative river development and ecological protection.