China's Mega Dam on Brahmaputra Faces Stability Risks Due to Paizhen Fault

Key facts

• China is constructing the world's largest hydropower project on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet.
• The project is designed to generate approximately 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, which is about three times the capacity of the Three Gorges Dam.
• A study published in the journal Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology warns that the project site lies on the active Paizhen Fault.
• The research was supervised by the state-owned China Geological Survey (CGS) and conducted by Chengdu University of Technology, the Civil-Military Integration Centre of the CGS, and the Middle Yarlung Zangbo River Natural Resources Observation and Research Station.
• The Paizhen Fault is located in a seismically active belt of the Himalayas where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide.
• The Yarlung Tsangpo River becomes the Brahmaputra after entering Arunachal Pradesh, flows through Assam, and enters Bangladesh as the Jamuna River.
• India has expressed concerns regarding the project's potential risks to water security, ecology, and downstream communities.
• A magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck Milin in Tibet in 2017 provides evidence of the fault's continuing seismic potential.