China’s New Mega-Dam Creates A Mountain of Controversy
A new hydroelectric project in Tibet has stoked diplomatic and environmental concerns — but demonstrates the country’s technological advances.
A section of the Yarlung Zangpo River in Tibet. Credit: Kobe Jiang via Flickr
Chinese premier Li Qiang described it as the “project of the century.” And by the numbers, China’s largest hydroelectric project, for which Li broke ground on Monday, certainly lives up to the billing.
Design by Eliot Chen
Built on the Yarlung Zangpo, a tributary of India’s Brahmaputra and Bangladesh’s Jamuna rivers, the dam complex will include five cascading power stations on the cusp of the Tibetan Plateau. Once completed, the system can generate up to 70 gigawatts of el
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