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Risks Loom for Chinese Dam Project Being Built on Active Fault Line

As China erects the largest hydropower installation on Earth atop an active fault line in the Himalayas, Chinese scientists are calling on engineers to guard against risks from earthquakes.

The project broke ground last year in the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet, the longest and deepest canyon in the world. When completed, the $167 billion installation will consist of a series of five dams and have a generating capacity of 70 gigawatts, roughly the total power capacity of Poland.

But scientists warn that Tibet is prone to earthquakes, putting the project at risk, the South China Morning Post reports. Early last year, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake near the border with Nepal killed more than 120 people and destroyed more than 3,600 buildings.

In a recent paper, scientists noted that the terrain at the construction site is "loose structure and weak cohesion." Writing in Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology, a scientific journal overseen by the China Geological Survey, they said that "under the influence of fault activity and earthquakes, instability of the slopes on both sides of the reservoir area can be extremely easily triggered." Scientists called for reinforcing slopes and installing retaining walls to reduce the risk of landslides.

Along with the seismic risks, scientists tell Yale Environment 360 that the project poses a risk to wildlife. The river gorge is home to snow leopards, Bengal tigers, and Tibetan brown bears, as well as a thousand-year-old cypress that, at more than 330 feet, is the tallest tree in Asia.

Further downstream, the Yarlung Tsangpo River runs into neighboring India, where officials fear the dam project will give China the ability to withhold water or unleash floods in a future conflict. To buffer against future "water bombs," India is planning its own massive dam on its side of the border.