Strong protests have erupted in the Indian border state of Arunachal Pradesh against a proposed “multi-purpose project” envisioned as the country’s response to China’s plan to construct the world’s largest dam in Tibet on the same river.
India plans to build the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) on the Siang River. The hydropower project will have an installed capacity of 11,000 megawatts. A reservoir capable of storing 9 billion cubic meters of water is expected to regulate the flow of the river to ensure a constant flow even during dry seasons. It is also envisaged as a buffer in case of excess and sudden water releases from dams in China; the idea is that SUMP would prevent flooding in the downstream areas in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India, and also Bangladesh.
However, locals are opposed to the project. On December 15, thousands of people peacefully protested in Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang and Upper Siang districts. The immediate cause of the protest was the government’s decision to deploy central and state armed police forces ahead of a pre-feasibility survey for the project.
The protests have intensified as a section of the local population believes that the feasibility survey is being conducted secretly. Protestors submitted a petition to the government registering their opposition to the survey and construction of SUMP. They also made a case for a referendum among the population to be affected.
The Siang River originates in Tibet, where it is called the Yarlung Tsangpo. After entering Arunachal Pradesh, it flows down to Assam and is joined by other rivers to form the Brahmaputra. The transboundary river then enters Bangladesh and, after joining the Ganges, goes on to empty its waters in the Bay of Bengal.
Protests against SUMP are not new. They began as early as 2017 when the government announced its plans for the project. The Forum for Siang Dialogue and other civil society organizations had condemned the proposal as a “mad rush and weird dream of making money.”
More recently, on August 31 and October 5 of 2024, protestors hit the streets in several towns in Arunachal to voice their disapproval of SUMP.
During a consultative meeting with government representatives, local civil society organizations expressed their fears of large-scale displacement by the project. “Besides the adverse environmental impact, there will be a demographic change in the region due to the influx of outsiders. The fear among the local populace is very genuine,” said Ebo Mili, lawyer and environmental activist, who was an active participant in the recent protests. Mili was arrested in July along with another activist for their opposition to hydroelectric (hydel) dams in the state.
The government’s earlier plans for dams on the river — the Lower Siang (2,700 megawatts) and the Upper Siang hydroelectric project (3,750 megawatts) — had already sparked resistance that has continued intermittently since then.
An activist who spoke to The Diplomat on condition of anonymity said that “the capacity of the hydel projects was expanded to 11,000 megawatts without proper studies. This is bound to fuel protests.”
Dams have routinely stoked controversies and agitations in Arunachal Pradesh.
In 2022, the Gauhati High Court canceled all 44 dams planned to be constructed on the Siang River. The petitioners alleged that the Arunachal Pradesh government received payments from firms for over 230 dams to be built across the state. A few months later, the state government informed the high court that all 44 dam projects had been canceled.
However, the government appears determined to construct the dams, especially after China approved the construction of the world’s largest dam on the same river in Tibet. The dam in China will be built at a major gorge where the river takes a sharp U-turn before flowing into Arunachal Pradesh. The Chinese dam, which will be built at an estimated cost of $137 billion, will generate more than 300 billion kilowatts of electricity each year, three times more electricity than China’s Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river, which is currently the world’s largest hydropower plant.
The Indian government is apprehensive that the dam across the border will give China control over the river’s flow and allow it to release large amounts of water in times of conflict, which would flood downstream areas. Some military officers described the Chinese project as a “water bomb” against India.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma warned that the ecosystem of the state would be rendered “fragile” after the Chinese dam is built.
The Chinese government has downplayed India’s concerns, stating that detailed studies were done over decades for the project that will be equipped with adequate safety measures. A government spokesperson also claimed that the dam would not have any negative impact on the downstream countries in India and Bangladesh.