CHINA: Expert says excessive hydropower exploration causes irreversible damage to environment

Record ID: 1547986

  • Title: CHINA: Expert says excessive hydropower exploration causes irreversible damage to environment
  • Date: 5th December 2009
  • Summary: GIRL LOOKING ON
  • Embargoed: 20th December 2009 02:53
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ZOS8DSDL4UJGW5YE7F6063BK
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: As China is scrambling to build massive hydropower dams to curb pollution and slake its thirst for energy, expert warns damming rivers can cause irreversible damage to the environment.
    Like many of China's major rivers, the Dadu is being cut into pieces in the country's rush for hydropower.
    The government has laid out a plan to build 22 hydropower stations along the river with a total generating capacity of 23,400 megawatts by the end of 2020.
    So far two have been finished since the project was initiated in 2001.
    The Dadu River runs 1,062 km across southwestern Sichuan province and flows into the Yangtze.
    Facing mounting pressure from the international community to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Beijing unveiled its first firm target last week, pledging to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each yuan of national income 40-45 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels.
    One of the measures to meet this goal is to tap the country's rich water resources.
    The world's number-two energy user already gets 15 percent of its electricity from hydropower and aims to increase capacity by three quarters to 300 gigawatts by 2020.
    Environmentalists have warned the country's waterway system is being destroyed as hydropower plants are being built on almost every Chinese river.
    Ma Zhong, dean of Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources of Renmin University, cautioned modern hydropower stations, which can only function for decades, are causing irreversible damage to the landscape and water environment.
    "People tend to measure a kind of energy by its carbon emission level, the less the cleaner. Some even think an energy kind that generates zero carbon emission is the cleanest or the most environment-friendly. But I don't think it is 100 per cent right. Carbon emission levels are usually used to measure fossil energy. Hydropower may not generate carbon emissions, but it can cause severe ecological consequences," said Ma.
    Damming rivers can destroy the underwater ecosystem and cause species to extinct, resulting in a vicious circle that cannot be reversed, he added.
    Dagangshan hydropower plant, seated on the lower course of the Dadu River, is still under construction.
    When completed, it can generate 2,300 megawatts electricity every year.
    Worker Pu Yunjun said he had participated in the construction of three hydropower plants in the region.
    Pu's job is to create land on the river bank for hundreds of relocated farmers, who lost their homes and farmlands to make way for the huge dam.
    "We are now building the river bank, so the farmers can grow crops on it in the future. Hundreds of farmers have been relocated because of the construction of Dagangshan hydropower plant. They all need farmlands," said Pu.
    However, life is not easy for those villagers who just moved to their new homes, that were built for them by the local government.
    Villager Wang Fugui said he had been left with nothing after losing his farmland and fruit trees.
    Wang's five-member family were compensated 25,700 RMB (3,752 US dollars) altogether, which he said was far from enough to continue their livelihood.
    "We didn't want to move in the beginning, but they told us we had to. And we cannot afford to move somewhere else, so we just followed the others and moved down here. We didn't want to move, because we were not given enough compensation to makemeet," he said.
    Wang may not have a choice, but the policymakers need to take the interest of the coming generations into consideration, said Ma.
    "Many hydropower projects were given the greenlight because decisions were made based on the interest of the current generation instead of the generations to follow, so they all look like correct decisions at the moment," he said.
    Other scientists also warn that reservoirs can also worsen global warming by emitting a powerful greenhouse gas -- Methane.
    The flammable gas, which traps heat much more efficiently than carbon dioxide, is produced by plants and animals rotting underwater and released when that water rushes through hydropower turbines.
    In a country that is already the world's top hydropower generator and aims to more than double capacity, dams could raise methane emissions by around 8%, recent research shows.
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