World's biggest mega project will cost an eye-watering $137,000,000,000

Construction of the world’s most expensive hydropower dam has been approved by China, but specialists have raised concerns about the impact the development could have on the environment and surrounding communities.

The project, first announced in 2020, is estimated to cost over $137bn and is expected to generate three times more energy than the world’s largest hydropower plant, the Three Gorges Dam.

The latter is situated on the Yangtze River and is reported to generate 0.54 Twh electricity a day. It’s understood the Three Gorges Dan can also handle inflows of around 98.8m litres per second.

Now, Chinese state media has described the upcoming development on China’s Yarlung Tsangpo River as a ‘safe project prioritising ecological protection’, as per the BBC.

The mega project will be situated along the Yarlung Tsangpo River (China News Service / Contributor / Getty)

They added that although it will cost a whopping $137 billion, it will ‘boost local prosperity’ and contribute to Beijing’s ‘climate neutrality goals'.

It’s further reported that the dam is set to be located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River and that the major development may require at least four 20 km-long tunnels to be drilled through the Namcha Barwa mountain.

This means the flow of the Tibetan river will be diverted, as per reports.

Human rights groups and other experts have since raised concerns about the ecological, environmental and cultural effects building the latest dam in the Tibetan area could cause.

This could also include the displacement of locals as it has yet to be indicated how many people the project would be forced to relocate.

As well as disrupting the community, the dam is set to be located along a tectonic plate boundary prone to earthquakes, writes the Daily Star.

Chinese researchers have flagged concerns that the excavation into the Namcha Barwa mountain and the continued construction of the dam may also increase the frequency of landslides.

In 2022, a senior engineer from Sichuan Provincial Geological Bureau said: “Earthquake-induced landslides and mud-rock flows are often uncontrollable and will also pose a huge threat to the project.”

The authorities have stressed however that the project would not have a major environmental impact.

Earlier this year, Tibetans protested against a different Gangtuo dam and hydropower plant being built which would displace several villages and flood ancient monasteries, according to the BBC.

The protest resulted in arrests conducted by the Chinese government, with the publication stating that some people were left seriously injured.

Meanwhile, authorities of Bejing said it had relocated and compensated the locals while moving the ancient murals to safety.

Specialists also feared that the dam would ‘empower China to control or divert the flow’ of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which measures 1,125km in length.

A 2020 report published by the Lowy Institute said that ‘control over these rivers [in the Tibetan Plateau] effectively gives China a chokehold on India's economy’.

In the same year, China's foreign ministry declared the country has a ‘legitimate right’ to dam the river and has considered downstream impacts on countries such as India and Bangladesh.

If construction does go ahead on the dam, then it will be both the biggest and most expensive hydropower dam in the world.