China building dam close to India border

China building dam close to India border

Subject : International Relations /Geography

Concept :

• The development comes in the wake of China unveiling plans to build a “super” dam close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Tibet on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river.
• The images depict the obstruction of the river’s path, the formation of a reservoir, and an embankment-type dam.
• The dam could also be used to store water, whose release could create floods downstream, the people said.

About Yarlung Zangbo

• The Yarlung Zangbo River (YZR) is the highest river in the world.
• The trans-border Yarlung Zangbo originates from the Majieyangzom glacier in the southwest of the Tibetan Plateau.
• It flows into Arunachal Pradesh where it is called the Siang and then to Assam as the Brahmaputra before flowing into Bangladesh.

Embankment Dams

• An embankment dam is a large artificial dam.
• It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil, sand, clay, or rock.
• It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and a dense, impervious core.
• An embankment dam is a type of dam in which more than 50 % of the total volume is formed of compacted earth material generally smaller than 3-inch size.