Siang Dam: India’s Reply to China’s $170 Billion Mega Dam | Dam to Dam — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00India, have you seen what I'm building
2. 0:02in the Himalayas?
3. 0:03>> Your $170 billion mega dam right above
4. 0:07my head?
5. 0:08>> The biggest in the world.
6. 0:10>> Biggest dam or biggest weapon?
7. 0:13>> Call it what you like. One switch in
8. 0:15Beijing and I decide how much
9. 0:17Brahmaputra you get.
10. 0:18>> Some say you could hold back up to 85%.
11. 0:22>> Imagine Assam and Arunachal in the dry
12. 0:24season with no water.
13. 0:26>> I have imagined it. That's why I'm
14. 0:29building my own dam on the Siang.
15. 0:31>> Your own?
16. 0:32>> The Siang Upper Multipurpose Project.
17. 0:3511,000 megawatts. A reservoir that can
18. 0:38hold 9 billion cubic meters of water.
19. 0:41>> 9 billion? For what?
20. 0:43>> For your bad days. When you hold water
21. 0:45back, my reservoir lets it out and keeps
22. 0:48the river alive.
23. 0:49>> And if I do the opposite, open my gates
24. 0:52during a border fight and flood your
25. 0:53northeast?
26. 0:55>> Then my reservoir catches your flood
27. 0:56before it reaches my villages.
28. 0:59>> A full reservoir can't catch anything.
29. 1:01You'll keep it full to make electricity.
30. 1:04>> That's why it's multipurpose. I'll keep
31. 1:06empty space for your surprises.
32. 1:08>> You think one dam can stop me?
33. 1:10>> It doesn't have to stop you. It just has
34. 1:13to make your switch useless.
35. 1:15>> Nice plan, but it's only on paper.
36. 1:18My dam is already being built. Yours is
37. 1:21stuck at a survey.
38. 1:23>> My local people are raising questions.
39. 1:2513 villages could go under water. I'll
40. 1:28answer them and help them understand.
41. 1:30>> And you sent armed forces into those
42. 1:32villages just to drill a few holes.
43. 1:35>> To keep order. They're my people and
44. 1:37they have every right to protest.
45. 1:39>> Every day you argue at home, I win a
46. 1:42day.
47. 1:43>> You call it arguing, we call it
48. 1:45democracy.
49. 1:46>> And while your democracy takes its time,
50. 1:49my dam keeps growing.
51. 1:50>> Then my democracy will move faster.
52. 1:53>> You're running out of time, India.
53. 1:55>> Maybe, but your dam takes years, too.
54. 1:58The race isn't over.
55. 1:59>> And what if I finish first?
56. 2:01>> Then congratulations. We'll complete
57. 2:04ours, too. And then we'll speak dam to
58. 2:06dam.