Forget the dam, if completed, will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, located at the top of the Tibetan Plateau, on the border with India.
China states that the Motuo hydroelectric station, which is being built in Tibet, is critical to its efforts to achieve clean energy goals. China also sees infrastructure projects as a way to stimulate the slow Chinese economy and create jobs.
But this project has raised concerns between environmentalists and the neighbors of China – in part because China said very little about it.
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The area where the dam is being built is prone to earthquakes. The Tibetan River being dammed, the Yarlung Tsangpo flows to neighboring India such as Brahmaputra and Bangladesh as Jamuna, raising concerns in these countries about water security.
What is known about the project?
China announced in late December that the government had approved the construction of the Motuo project in the lower parts of Yarlung Tsangpo, but released few details about it. This includes the cost of the project, from which the money will come, which companies are involved and how many people will probably be moved.
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The dam will be in Fearg County, Tibet, in a steep canyon where the river makes a horseshoe -shaped curve known as the large curve, and then falls about 2,000 meters over approximately 48 kilometers.
By taking advantage of the kinetic energy of this fall, the hydroelectric station could generate 300 billion kilowatt-hours of energy per year, estimated state Power Construction Corp. Of China, or Powerchina, in 2020. This would be triple of the capacity of the three throat, currently the largest in the world, which cost about $ 34 billion to build.
China has not announced which company is building the dam, but some analysts say Powerchina, the country’s largest hydroelectric infrastructure builder, is probably involved. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
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Experts say that construction in the large curve, a 500 -meter -deep canyon without roads, would probably take a decade due to technical challenges.
Even the basic design of the dam is unknown.
According to Fan Xiao, senior engineer at the Sichuan Geology Office who spoke to The New York Timesa proposal, which he saw as a likely approach, involved building a dam near the top of the large curve and diverting water through huge tunnels perforated in the canyon.
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Are there environmental risks?
The same forces that created the large curve pose risks to the dam that China is building in it. The Tibetan plateau was formed by a collision between Indian tectonic and euro-Asian plates millions of years ago. To this day, the Indian plaque is still moving slowly towards the euro-Asian, which is why Himalayas is regularly hit by earthquakes.
Such seismic events threaten the safety of the dams. Chinese authorities said cracks appeared in five hydroelectric dams in Tibet after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake to reach near the city of Shigatse this month, killing more than 120 people.
Even though the motue dam is built well enough to withstand an earthquake, the landlies and mud flows resulting from tremors are difficult to contain and can kill people who live nearby. Experts say that the massive excavation involved in the construction of the dam could make such disasters more likely.
What about the people who live there?
It is difficult to know how the project is being received by Tibetans and members of other smaller ethnic groups living in the area. Tibet is rigidly controlled by the Communist Party, which encouraged Han people to move to the Plateau and strictly controlled the practice of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibet is open to foreigners only by permission, and is usually prohibited for foreign journalists.
In the past, Tibetans conducted protests against hydroelectric dam projects that threatened to displace them, including a demonstration last year in Sichuan province, according to a report.
The motuao dam project is expected to bring more changes to Fearg, which was once the most remote county in China. The government has built highways in the region that attracted tourists and adventure travelers in recent years, according to Matthew Akester, a India -based Tibet researcher.
Now people will have to be relocated to give way to the dam, which may require agricultural lands and cities to be submerged. It is unclear how many people could be affected. Fearg has a population of 15,000.
How are India and Bangladesh reacting?
The dam could affect people who live downstream in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, as well as in Bangladesh. If the dam retires sediments, this would make the soil along the less fertile river and erode rivers and back margins in India, Dr. Kalyan Rudra, professor of river science and president of the Western Bengal Pollution Control Council, said, a professor of the Western Pollution Control, a government agency.
Scientists in India and Bangladesh have asked China to share details of their plans so that they can better evaluate the risk of the project. Indian diplomats also instituted Beijing to ensure that the project does not harm the states downstream. China says it has taken steps to prevent negative consequences for its neighbors.
China’s confidentiality is feeding distrust, said Genevieve Donnellon-May, a researcher at Oxford Global Society, based in the United Kingdom, who studies water policy and environmental conflicts. “Without Beijing to release hydrological data and detailed plans for the dam, India and Bangladesh get in the dark, so it’s harder to mitigate any potential impacts,” she said.
Both China and India have been mutually accused of trying to exercise control over water resources for strategic or economic gain-which some experts and authorities call “hydrohemonia.” The dam could be seen as a way of projecting Chinese power near the border disputed with India, including in Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as its territory.
Some staff in India proposed to build a large dam in a Brahmaputra tributary to store water and counterbalance any reduction in the flow that the tibet dam can cause. But Rudra, from the Western Bengal Pollution Control Council, said that such a dam could cause the same problems with soil fertility and erosion.
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