Tibet Quake Highlights Earthquake Risk for Dams on Roof of the World

January 10, 2025 | 10:42 pm

TEMPO.CO, Beijing - Tibet's earthquake of magnitude 6.8 that killed 126 and damaged four water reservoirs this week highlights the risks from a hydropower building spree by Asian giants China and India in one of the world's most remote, quake-prone regions, experts say.

Some 68 major dams in the Himalayan region exploit the enormous hydropower potential of high-altitude lakes and rivers - just a fifth of which has been tapped, researchers say, but face seismic risks.

Another 101 are in the stages of being planned or built.

Even before the quake centered on Tingri county, the northern gateway to the Mount Everest region, experts had voiced concern about both nations' hydropower ambitions there, exemplified by China's plan for the world’s largest hydropower dam.

The project, more than three times the size of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest, is set to provide 34 gigawatts of clean energy vital to China's aim of peak carbon emissions before 2030.

"A strong earthquake could cause direct damage," Fan Xiao, a former chief engineer in the geology and mineral bureau of Sichuan in southwestern China, wrote in an article in October 2022 on the province's Motuo project approved in late December.

Fan, who warned the project was in an area prone to strong earthquakes, did not respond to Reuters questions on messaging app Wechat about the article.

Hydropower projects in the remote mountainous area highlight the tension between the risks of building there and the enormous demand for clean power in China and India, the world's No. 1 and No. 3 emitters of greenhouse gases respectively.

Earthquakes have damaged dams in the past, particularly by setting off landslides and rockfalls. A massive earthquake in Nepal in 2015 shuttered almost a fifth of its hydropower for more than a year, research published in 2018 showed.

Building more dams in the Himalayas is not sustainable, said C P Rajendran, a geologist at India's National Institute of Advanced Studies, citing ecological concerns and the earthquake risk from the weight of gigantic reservoirs on faultlines.

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