Editor,

The Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) issue is getting bigger and bigger day by day. Instead of fighting among ourselves without trying to find a middle way, as an Adi, I would like to propose a win-win solution.

As we know, the threat from China's r-of-the-river Medog 60 GW dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo is real, so we can't neglect it also. So, NHPC and the government can build the SUMP dam beyond Tuting, near Gelling and China border, where there is no human settlement. In this way it won't submerge Adi-inhabited villages. Also, make the dam the world's strongest dam, instead of as India's largest, because the primary purpose of the SUMP is national security to act as a shield against China's water bomb. Also, construction of 'protective embankments', along both the banks of Siang up to Assam border and beyond should be included as a part of SUMP infrastructure to be constructed by the NHPC. Moreover, the NHPC can also fit turbines along the banks to generate more electricity. Although the above proposed design may generate less than 11,000 MW, it will save the lives of lakhs of inhabitants in the downstream.

The NHPC and the government can earn money from building the dam, the embankments, by generating power, and the Adis' ancestral home along with downstream people will also be saved.

So, I would like to request our chief minister, governor, chief secretary, NHPC head and all the policymakers to give a thought to the proposed win-win middle solution, instead of going forcibly with the current proposed design.

A concerned Adi