UN experts warn of “irreversible destruction” in Tibet if Chinese dam project goes ahead
Thirteen UN human rights experts have made public their concerns about the construction of the Kamtok hydroelectric dam on the Drichu River, commonly known as Yangtze, in Tibet, warning of “dire and irreversible environmental and climate impacts” and “irreversible destruction of important cultural and religious sites” should it go ahead.
The Kamtok dam came to widespread attention in February 2024, when large public protests in eastern Tibet against the dam were broken up by police. Tibetans in Dege and Jomda counties have long opposed the dam, because it would displace Tibetan communities, destroy cultural heritage, and cause severe environmental damage.
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According to the experts, the dam threatens not only Tibet’s fragile biodiversity but also contributes to worsening climate change, as large-scale hydroelectric dams are known to increase greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbate natural disasters like landslides and floods.
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Local Tibetans have expressed opposition to the Kamtok dam since plans were first proposed in 2012. The February 2024 protests were notable for their scale and for the number of images and videos of them, both of which are rare in occupied Tibet due to the intense levels of surveillance and security. Several hundred Tibetans were arrested and detained for opposing the dam’s construction.
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The UN experts expressed numerous concerns over this response to the peaceful protests, noting “the widespread crackdown” on Tibetan individuals peacefully expressing their opposition to the construction of the Kamtok dam as well as China’s use of force, arbitrary arrests, and detentions against Tibetans simply exercising their “legitimate” human rights. “These incidents underscore the alarming reality for people living in Tibet, who have faced similar allegations and consequences, for exercising their fundamental rights,” said UN experts.
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The Kamtok dam project, developed by a subsidiary of the state-owned enterprise China Huadian Corporation […] is part of a broader strategy to export hydropower from Tibet to eastern China.
Yet UN experts state that the relocation of Tibetans from these lands will “adversely [impact] their rights to development and self-determination, to maintain their ways of life, to land and housing, to access and enjoy heritage, to exercise their religious and cultural practices, and their right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.”
Their statement spotlights the lack of free, prior, and informed consent from affected Tibetan communities, as well as China’s failure to provide for meaningful consultation about their forced displacement. There are also no indications that any environmental impact assessment that specifically considered the Kamtok project was ever conducted.