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Rush to dam Jinsha River for ‘clean’ energy ignores myriad ecological risks
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ANOTHER backwater mountain area in China’s southwest recently imposed itself on our national consciousness, in a tragic manner. On August 3 a deadly magnitude-6.5 quake struck Yunnan Province, catapulting the otherwise little known name of Ludian into the national spotlight.
This is actually an area connected to Shanghai, by the mighty Yangtze River.
While Shanghai lies at the estuary of the Yangtze, Ludian is close to the 2,300-kilometer Jinsha River, an upper tributary of the Yangtze.
As you can see from the quake pictures, this area is of ethereal natural beauty, marked by densely covered high mountains and rivers roaring through deep gorges. The famed Tiger Leaping Gorge lies farther upstream, near Lijiang, also in Yunnan Province.
To give you a clue, the meandering river drops 3,300 meters in elevation along its 2,300-kilometer passage.
To the uninitiated, this is an awe-inspiring land evocative of primordial bliss, contentment and thankfulness. In the eyes of those who refused to be distracted, not to say awed, by its transcending beauty, the rivers and mountains can be despoiled for higher gratification. The sheer drop in elevation means dams, hydropower, money. The water resources there represent hydropower potential that accounts for nearly 40 percent of the total Yangtze River.
According to an investigative report in the Oriental Morning Post on May 3, 2012, this turbulent river is being tamed by a cluster of hydropower projects springing up along the torrents.
In the near future, that report predicted, that tumultuous river would be reduced to a cluster of super reservoirs, averaging one in every 100 kilometers. The Jinsha River is witnessing a veritable “great leap forward” in hydropower construction.
Soon after this quake, we witnessed a scene that became familiar after the deadly Wenchuan Quake in neighboring Sichuan Province in 2008, with rescuers rushing against time to defuse the threat of barrier lakes resulting from landslides that blocked the flow of rivers.
But from another perspective, our engineers have all along been busy damming the rivers in their eagerness to extract energy. There is scant research about the potential geological and ecological impacts of this rush to build hydropower in an area known for fault earthquakes and other ecological cataclysms.
According to a Xinmin Evening News report last Thursday, Pan Huaiwen, director of the China Earthquake Networks Center, water-storage projects might trigger minor earthquakes of magnitude 3 or 4. But Pan said he could not establish a direct link between water storage and a major quake like that in Ludian.
Winners and losers
But nearly all officials can safely establish the link between hydropower stations and GDP. In this hydropower rush, the majestic Jinsha River is stripped of its brutal force and turned into hydropower at 25 elevations, with the potential equivalent of four Three Gorges project.
Of the 25 elevations, 24 are being grabbed and developed by five major state-owned power companies. The frenzy, according to the Post report, has led to considerable damage to the local environment, but the prevailing practice is to first resolutely push through with the actual project, and then deal with the regulatory for approval.
In 2005, the huge Xiluodu hydropower station, in the wake of an environmental crusade, was punished for “construction without prior approval” and fined 200,000 yuan (US$32,000). That’s a ridiculously low amount if you have any clue about the operating costs of the hydropower station, and its returns.
On the face of it, those areas in the coastal east stand to gain from the so-called clean energy.
At an environmental forum on June 14, Chen Guojie, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that Shanghai would be the greatest victim as a result of the Three Gorges, in the form of river pollution, intensifying erosion of the banks and river bed, a growing threat of seawater, and damage to local fishing resources.
In countering this charge, an official mouthpiece cited the many economic benefits, asserting that up to June this year, Shanghai has received 105 billion kilowatt hours of electricity from the project, an equivalent to 31 million tons of coal, making Shanghai the greatest beneficiary.
But the alleged benefit in no way allays our fears about the myriad aggravations ranging from soil erosion to loss in biological diversity.
And apparently, those building the dams do not feel much inclination to consult the opinion of a segment of population most impacted, people who live next to the Jinsha River — poor and thus automatically aspiring to prosperity — and local officials, ambitious and thus thirsty for more GDP growth.
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