Reuters reports that China has approved the construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam on the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet, set to generate 300 billion kilowatt-hours annually, surpassing the Three Gorges Dam in capacity. India and Bangladesh have expressed concerns over the potential ecological impacts and changes to the river’s flow downstream. They write:
China has approved the construction of what will be the world’s largest hydropower dam, kicking off an ambitious project on the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau that could affect millions downstream in India and Bangladesh.
The dam, which will be located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, could produce 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, according to an estimate provided by the Power Construction Corp of China in 2020.
That would more than triple the 88.2 billion kWh designed capacity of the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest, in central China. […]
India and Bangladesh have nevertheless raised concerns about the dam, with the project potentially altering not only the local ecology but also the flow and course of the river downstream. […]
China has already commenced hydropower generation on the upper reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo, which flows from the west to the east of Tibet. It is planning more projects upstream.
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