"China Hands Over Ecuador’s Coca Codo Dam as Defects and Risks Remain Unresolved", China GLobal South Project 23 Apr 2026

Ten years after the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam first came online, the Chinese state-owned construction company Sinohydro Corporation finally turned the project over to the Ecuadorian state last Friday.  Yet Ecuador only agreed to accept it under the condition that its operation and maintenance will soon be concessioned back.

[...] Following nine months of closed-door negotiations hammering out the details, the presidents’ deal is now coming to fruition, including not only the recent handover but also the conclusion of an arbitration claim in exchange for $200 million in compensation from PowerChina and $200 million for “investment in renewable energy projects.”

The impasse that kept the project in limbo for a decade centers around the presence of thousands of fissures in the powerhouse’s distributors [...] It is unclear how many fissures remain in the eight distributors today, as no technical information about the defects has been made public since.

Though Sinohydro representatives have argued that the fissures are not consequential for Coca Codo’s energy production, for years Ecuador refused to accept the project until these defects were fully resolved. [...]

Since 2020, the Coca River has undergone a rapid transformation as its bed widens and deepens [...].

If the erosion reaches the dam during PowerChina’s 25-year concession period, as experts have predicted, presumably their operation contract would cease and the cost of the failed project would fall on its owner, the Ecuadorian state.