The Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced the start of construction of the world’s largest hydropower plant in Tibet on Saturday. The dam is expected to produce three times as much electricity as the Three Gorges Dam. However, neighboring countries India and Bangladesh are concerned.
The opening ceremony took place in Linzhi, a town on the Yarlung Tsangpo River. The power plant will be built there. According to the Chinese press agency Xinhua, the construction will cost 1.2 trillion Chinese yuan (144 billion euros). Premier Li described the dam as “the project of the century.”
The dam will consist of five hydropower plants. These will be located on a section of the river where the water drops 2,000 meters over 50 kilometers. The power plants will generate 300 billion kilowatt hours annually. That amount of electricity is roughly equivalent to the total consumption of the United Kingdom.
Currently, the Three Gorges Dam is the largest dam in China and the world. This dam in the Yangtze generates approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours annually, slightly less than the total electricity production of the Netherlands.
There is also a lot of criticism of the new dam. India and Bangladesh have expressed concerns because the Yarlung Tsangpo River flows from China to those two countries. China could exert political pressure with the dam. In China itself, there are concerns about people who have to move because their living area will be flooded. There are also concerns about the consequences for nature.
China denies that people living downstream, such as in India and Bangladesh, will experience any inconvenience. Beijing claims that it will be able to regulate the water flow better in the future and thus prevent disasters. At Saturday’s presentation, Li emphasized that “special emphasis will be placed on environmental protection.” It is not yet clear how many people will have to move as a result of the construction.