China’s ‘Mega Hydropower Infrastructure’ on Yarlung Tsangpo: Competing Discourses, ‘Water Wars’ Rhetoric and Riverine Communities

This brief examines three key issues around water security in the context of India and China, namely, competing hydropower discourses, framing water security through the rhetoric of ‘water wars’ and whether riverine communities are capable of exercising their agencies. The author offers interesting perspectives by suggesting that damming discourses have been evolving over the years shaped by domestic, bilateral and global factors. The author also argues that it is too simplistic to view China’s ‘Great Bend’ activities only through the lens of ‘weapon in guise’ or within the frame of ‘water wars.’ Lastly, according to the author, the voices of riverine communities are often in the margins of public policies, yet they have agency in the form of resistance.