BLOG

The Thirsty Dragon: Dam! China Approves World’s Most Expensive Infrastructure Project

Via The Economist, a report on China’s planned Tsangpo dam, the world’s most expensive infrastructure project which has China’s neighbours on edge:

IT IS SOMETIMES called the “Everest of rivers” owing to its extreme topography. One section of the Yarlung Tsangpo falls 2,000 metres over a stretch of 50km (31 miles). But what interests Chinese officials is the river’s hydropower potential. On December 25th Xinhua, the state-run news agency, reported that China had approved plans to build the world’s largest hydroelectric dam on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo, which flows from Tibet into India and Bangladesh (see map).

Map: The Economist

The dam could generate 300bn kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, according to official estimates. That is enough to meet the needs of more than 300m people and more than triple the capacity of the Three Gorges dam, which is currently the world’s largest. The government hopes the new dam will help China eliminate net emissions of greenhouse gases (or become “carbon neutral”) by 2060. But the project faces many challenges.

According to reports, four to six 20km-long tunnels will need to be drilled through the Namcha Barwa mountain to divert the flow of Yarlung Tsangpo. That will be hard enough, but the dam’s construction site also sits along a tectonic-plate boundary, making it prone to earthquakes and landslides. The engineering task is one reason why the cost of the project is expected to be as much as 1trn yuan ($137bn), which would make it the most expensive infrastructure project in the world.

In order to build the Three Gorges dam the Chinese government resettled over 1.3m people. It is not clear how many might be displaced by the new dam, which will be in Medog county in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibet is no stranger to dams. Dozens have been built there, often raising the ire of locals who feel the government is exploiting the region. In February 2024 the authorities arrested hundreds who had been protesting against another dam that threatened to leave villages and monasteries under water. Similar concerns, as well as fears of harm to the local ecosystem, surround the project in Medog.

Chinese officials play down these worries and say that downstream flows will not be substantially affected. That is unlikely to reassure India and Bangladesh, where the Yarlung Tsangpo is known as the Brahmaputra and is depended on by millions. The three countries have no water-sharing agreement. So the dam will probably add to concerns over China’s ability to control the Brahmaputra, especially in India, which is among the most water-stressed countries in the world.

At least one study (by Chinese researchers) suggests that a big dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo could benefit all the riparian states—if they co-operate—by enabling increased flows during the dry season. But sceptics point to China’s handling of dams on the Mekong river, which have harmed the environment and hurt fishers and farmers downstream. It will take at least a decade to complete the new dam. India and Bangladesh might want to use that time working out how to adapt



This entry was posted on Friday, January 3rd, 2025 at 4:40 am and is filed under Bangladesh, China, India.  You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.  Both comments and pings are currently closed. 

Comments are closed.


© 2025 Water Politics LLC .  'Water Politics', 'Water. Politics. Life', and 'Defining the Geopolitics of a Thirsty World' are service marks of Water Politics LLC.