Europe Asia News

Experts say the hydroelectric system to be built on the lower reaches of Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo River will be an unprecedented engineering achievement. By drilling tunnels through a mountain and harnessing a 2,000-meter drop in elevation, the project will allow China to control a major river in a region known as Asia’s “water tower,” at a time when governments are intensifying their focus on water security.

Hundreds of kilometers away from China’s densely populated coastline, a sharp bend in a remote Himalayan river is set to become the focal point of one of the country’s most ambitious and controversial infrastructure projects to date.

A $168 billion hydroelectric system built here is expected to generate more electricity than any other system in the world.

The project could help China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, move away from coal-fired energy and contribute to efforts to slow global climate change. However, its construction could also disrupt a rare and pristine ecosystem and affect the ancestral homes of indigenous communities.

Moreover, tens of millions of people living downstream in India and Bangladesh depend on the river, and experts say the potential impact on the ecosystem, including fisheries and agriculture, has not been sufficiently studied.

Clues about the project’s design, found in both official or scientific reports and open-source information compiled by CNN, point to a complex system that could include dams and reservoirs along the Yarlung Tsangpo River, as well as a series of tunnel-linked underground hydroelectric plants that generate energy from a steep drop in elevation where the river’s course is diverted.