China starts building £737million mega-dam in Tibet

By Alycia McNamara, News Reporter

The Yarlung Zangbo river is the longest river in Tibet (Image: Getty Images)

A hydropower dam which will be the world’s largest is set to be built in China. But concerns have been raised by environmentalists and neighbouring countries.

The dam will be built on Tibet’s longest river and despite concerns from India, Bangladesh and Tibetan rights groups, it has now been approved by central government. At a huge cost of £737million, once it has been completed, it could be the world’s largest hydropower dam.

The new dam will provide huge amounts of energy for China (Image: Getty Images)

It could generate around 300 billion kilowatt-hours of power annually. Operations are expected to begin sometime in the 2030s, reports Radio Free Asia.

Xinhua reported that the electricity generated “will be primarily transmitted to other regions for consumption, while also meeting local power needs in Tibet.”

Climate activists have raised concerns about the impact the dam will have on the surrounding land. Climate activist and researcher Manshi Asher told RFA in December that there is “substantial evidence” of negative impacts from hydropower projects in the Himalayas.

“This project will undoubtedly alter the environmental flows of the river,” Asher said. “The larger the dam, the greater the impact on the river flows.”

China already has the Baihetan hydropower dam (Image: Getty Images)

Experts and officials have flagged concerns that the new dam would empower China to control or divert the trans-border Yarlung Tsangpo, which flows south into India's Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states as well as Bangladesh, where it feeds into the Siang, Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers, reports BBC.

A 2020 report published by the Lowy Institute, an Australian-based think tank, noted that “control over these rivers [in the Tibetan Plateau] effectively gives China a chokehold on India's economy”.

There are also environmental concerns over the flooding of Tibetan valleys renowned for their biodiversity, and the possible dangers of building dams in a region rife with earthquake fault lines.

Beijing had planned the project for several years, and approval was given in December last year, linking the development to the country’s carbon neutrality targets and economic goals in the Tibet region.