China to build huge dam in Tibet

China has approved the construction of what would be the world’s largest hydropower dam, launching an ambitious project on the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau that could affect millions downstream in India and Bangladesh.

The dam, which would be in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, could produce 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, according to an estimate provided by Power Construction Corp of China in 2020.

That would more than triple the 88.2 billion kilowatt-hours designed capacity of the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest, in central China.

The project would play a major role in meeting China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, stimulate industries such as engineering and create jobs in Tibet, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

A section of the Yarlung Zangbo falls 2km within 50km, offering huge hydropower potential, as well as unique engineering challenges.

The outlay for building the dam, including engineering costs, is also expected to eclipse the Three Gorges dam, which cost 254.2 billion yuan (US$34.83 billion).

This included the resettling of the 1.4 million people it displaced and was more than four times the initial estimate of 57 billion yuan.

Authorities have not indicated how many people the Tibet project would displace and how it would affect the local ecosystem, one of the richest and most diverse on the plateau.

Chinese officials say that hydropower projects in Tibet, which they say hold more than one-third of China’s hydroelectric power potential, would not have a major impact on the environment or on downstream water supplies.

However, India and Bangladesh have raised concerns about the planned dam, with the project potentially altering not only the local ecology, but also the flow and course of the river downstream.

The Yarlung Zangbo becomes the Brahmaputra River as it leaves Tibet and flows south into India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states, and into Bangladesh.

China has already commenced hydropower generation on the upper reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo, which flows west to east in Tibet, and is planning more projects upstream.