00:00This is the bend of the river in Tibet, which is also called the Great Bend.
00:04There is a magnificent U-turn in the Yarlung-Zangpo River, which changes its course and takes the water to India and Bangladesh,
00:12where this river is called Brahmaputra.
00:15Whatever its name is in India, it has nothing to do with China.
00:20China has been eyeing this U-turn for many years, which is not an ordinary U-turn.
00:25In fact, in the coming years, it may even create new wars in this region.
00:31Welcome again to Zem TV's videos.
00:34Viewers, this part of the Yarlung-Zangpo River is surrounded by the highest mountains of the Himalayas,
00:40which is also called the Yarlung-Zangpo Grand Canyon.
00:43In length, this valley is 505 km long, which is 50 km larger than the Arizona Grand Canyon and three times deeper.
00:53The canyon is actually a valley through which water is passing.
00:57Taking advantage of this valley, China has decided to build the world's most powerful dam here.
01:05Right here, which is the world's most remote location.
01:09China has been eyeing this U-turn for the past 20 years, and its specialty is its slope.
01:16If you look at it from this place, the river comes back from the other side of the mountain by making a U-turn along with the 7000-meter-high mountain.
01:26The interesting thing is that the height of the river is 2870 meters at this location.
01:31But after making a U-turn, the height of the river is only 870 meters at this place.
01:38This becomes a slope of about 2000 meters.
01:41That is, the same river that was flowing above 2870 meters in the west of the mountain,
01:47the same river comes down 2000 meters after just a little distance.
01:53Chinese experts have given several proposals to build a dam here,
01:57one of which is to dig a tunnel between this 7000-meter-high mountain and make a hydropower station.
02:04Now, because the river flowing in the west of the mountain is at a height of 2870 meters,
02:10if its path is closed from here and a tunnel is dug inside the mountain,
02:14and the water of the river is directly dropped into the river flowing east of the mountain,
02:20then this project will be able to generate 60 gigawatt electricity easily, according to an estimate.
02:27This is three times more electricity than the electricity generated by the world's largest three gorges dam.
02:34This project has been named the Motuo Hydropower Station,
02:38whose tunnel will be about 40 to 50 kilometers long,
02:42between which not one or two, but multiple turbines can be installed.
02:48Where water is stored in conventional dams,
02:51there will not be much effort to make a dam here,
02:55because on both sides there are high mountains that will act as a natural wall of the dam.
03:01However, a wall can be erected at this location to stop the water.
03:06Now, if a turbine is installed here and water is dropped on the other side,
03:10then it will fall only 200 meters below,
03:13which will generate less force and ultimately less electricity.
03:18Therefore, a tunnel of 40 to 50 kilometers will be dug near the wall and it will be dropped 2000 meters below at this location.
03:26Now imagine that the wall of the Three Gorges Dam is 180 meters high
03:31and it is the most electricity-generating dam ever.
03:36So here the water will go down to 2000 meters.
03:39But where there are benefits, there are also a lot of losses.
03:43Experts believe that China may face a lot of difficulties in making this project.
03:48First of all, this place is at a remote location in Tibet where there is no proper road network yet.
03:55How will the machines be transported to make this dam,
03:59in which the transportation of cranes etc. may not be such a big problem.
04:03But it can be a very difficult task for engineers to transport a 6,000-ton and 150-meter-long tunnel boring machine
04:10between these high mountains.
04:14Remember that the bigger the tunnel will be bored here,
04:18the more it was bored to connect France and the UK,
04:22which is called the Channel Tunnel.
04:24It cost a total of 6 years and more than 6 billion pounds in 1988.
04:32According to today's estimates, if China makes the world's largest hydropower station,
04:38it will cost 30 to 40 billion dollars to dig a tunnel.
04:44Yes, 3400 billion rupees.
04:47In which the cost of turbines is not included.
04:50And because thousands of cubic meters of water will pass through this tunnel,
04:53it is obvious that the walls of the tunnel will be covered with concrete and steel moulds to make it strong.
05:00All this will happen in the condition when everything is going according to plan.
05:05But if you don't know, let me tell you that this place is located just above the fault line,
05:12where the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate meet each other.
05:17This is the place that was the epicenter of the world's most dangerous earthquakes.
05:22In 1950, an earthquake of 8.5 magnitude occurred only 200 km away from here in the Indian state of Assam.
05:30And since 1901, more than 4,000 small and large earthquakes have been recorded in the entire Himalaya.
05:39Experts believe that those dams whose height is more than 100 meters and are present on the fault line,
05:46can easily cause an earthquake of 6 magnitude.
05:50Because they spoil the natural weight shift of the earth,
05:53due to which the tectonic plates present below also have to be adjusted accordingly.
05:59In addition to this, this area where the proposal for the Motuo hydropower station has been given,
06:05is also the home of deadly landslides.
06:08In 2021, a part of the Yarlung Zangbo River was blocked due to a landslide here,
06:15due to which the water had to change its course.
06:18In the same area, flash floods were triggered due to landslides in the Indian Himalaya,
06:23which killed many people and damaged two hydropower stations.
06:30Along with all these problems, if China wants to make the world's largest hydropower station,
06:36then it will have to face India too.
06:39As you can see that the part of the Yarlung Zangbo River that is going down after the dam,
06:45after a short distance, it enters the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
06:50This is the Indian state that China considers its own part,
06:54and many times the clash between India and China has also taken place here.
07:00Since 1960, India and China have fought many times over this disputed area.
07:07Recently, in 2020, there was a clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Galwan Valley,
07:14due to which a soldier was also killed.
07:17So the point is that the situation in this region is very tense,
07:22and making the world's largest dam 50 km away from the disputed border will not be free of danger.
07:30Because India and China are both nuclear power countries.
07:34Here, due to the construction of the dam, China can have full control over the water going to India and Bangladesh,
07:41which China will be able to use as its own weapon.
07:45All in all, the thing is that the Motuo hydropower station is not only dangerous for the environment,
07:51but can also start new wars in this entire area.
07:56So why is it so important for China?
08:00China is the second largest country in the world in terms of population,
08:04but it is the first in electricity consumption.
08:08India, which has a population of more than China,
08:11has an annual electricity consumption of 14 lakh gigawatts,
08:15while China's 78 lakh gigawatts.
08:18The main reason for this is the factories found in China,
08:22which is the backbone of China's growing economy,
08:26which China cannot reduce in any case.
08:29To meet its electricity demands, China has built more than 98,000 hydropower dams across the country.
08:38But despite this, 70% of China's electricity is generated through fossil fuels.
08:45China's vision is to gain control over carbon emissions by 2060,
08:50because as you all know, that time is not far when fossil fuels will be extinct from the world.
08:57So if China does not end its dependence on fossil fuels by 2060,
09:02then it may lose its position.
09:05The Motuo hydropower station, which will generate 60 gigawatt electricity,
09:10is just like the support for a drowning man in front of China's 78 lakh gigawatt shortage.
09:18Experts believe that if China wants to end its dependence on fossil fuels,
09:23it will have to work on dams as well as other green energy sources.
09:28Only then will it be able to meet its demands.
09:32I hope you will like and share this video of ZemTV.
09:36Thank you very much for your loving comments.
09:39See you in the next great video.
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