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High in the Himalayas, up in the outer reaches of Tibet, China is building what is expected to be the world’s largest hydropower project. Costing an estimated $167 billion,\u00a0the enormous hydropower system could triple the energy output of the 22,500-mW Three Gorges Dam, which itself is already\u00a0big enough to be seen from space<\/a>. Called the Motuo Hydropower Station, China’s latest hydropower project hopes to harness\u00a0the Yarlung Tsangpo river’s\u00a0steep drops through a series of tunnels and cascading power stations to generate as much as 70 gigawatts of electricity.<\/p>\n The project has understandably sparked concern from its downstream neighbors, namely\u00a0India and Bangladesh, both of which rely on the Yarlung Tsangpo for essentials such as irrigation, drinking water, and fishing. Indian officials went as far as to warn that diverting or releasing water from the dam could put millions of people at risk. Bangladeshi officials have also raised some questions about the dam’s potential impact. And though Chinese officials insist there’s no risk to downstream safety, India has already begun constructing its own dam on the\u00a0Siang river\u00a0to counter the potential effects of China’s dam and act as a protection\u00a0against\u00a0flooding that could be caused by massive water releases from said dam.<\/p>\n