Chinese geologists question safety of Brahmaputra mega-dam in Tibet over active seismic fault line

📌 Summary:

• A study by Chinese geologists found that an active fault line beneath the world's largest hydropower project on the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo) in Tibet could compromise its structural stability
• This undercuts Beijing's repeated claim that the mega-dam would help prevent disasters in the region
• The project sits in the eastern Himalayan seismic zone, close to the Indian border in Arunachal Pradesh; a fracture in the Earth's crust could significantly affect the dam's structural integrity
• The findings, citing a Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post report, add to India's downstream concerns over water security, flood risk and China's control of trans-boundary river flows

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 (International Relations — India-China; trans-boundary rivers) and GS1/GS3 (geography of the eastern Himalaya, seismicity and disaster risk). The dam raises riparian-rights, hydro-diplomacy and downstream-disaster questions for India and Bangladesh.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• The Brahmaputra is called Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet and Siang/Dihang in Arunachal Pradesh
• The mega-dam is being built near the Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo, in a highly seismic segment of the eastern Himalaya
• India and China have an Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) for sharing hydrological data on trans-boundary rivers

🔑 Key Term: Riparian rights — the entitlements of a state or party through whose territory a water body flows; upstream dam-building on trans-boundary rivers raises lower-riparian concerns over water flow and flood control.