China's Hunger For Electricity Eats Into Environment

by Antoaneta Bezlova

(IPS) BEIJING -- China's voracious appetite for electricity is driving its officials to encroach on the last free-flowing water sources as far as remote Tibet, creating ripples of discontent even beyond Chinese borders.

Likewise, plans to dam virgin rivers and lakes in China's remaining great wilderness have been spurred also by increased squabbling for dwindling natural resources between newly independent power corporations.

Chinese energy officials have unveiled blueprints to build a new generation of dams on the Nu River -- a waterway that flows through the virgin forests of Yunnan province and is called the Salween as it flows downstream into Burma and Thailand.

Plans are afoot also to erect a dam on Mugecuo Lake, known to Tibetans as the Yeti Lake, in an area that is home to the endangered snow leopard.

Hydropower development on the Nu River is headed by China Huadian Group, one of China's biggest five power producers that were created after the break-up of the communist country's power monopoly in December 2002.

The dam on Mugecuo Lake will be built by China Huaneng Group, the country's largest independent power producer that is run by the son of the former Prime Minister Li Peng.

Proposals to expand China's hydropower in the country's pristine western regions follow related developments on the Yangtze and Lancang River, which is called the Mekong as it flows downstream into South-east Asia.

Alarmed by the country's insatiable hunger for electricity and growing dependence on imported oil and gas, Chinese energy officials are determined to expand their grip over the vast natural resources of China's west.

Despite years of internal debate and international opposition, the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, is rising up on Yangtze River. By the time the $25 billion dam is completely finished in 2009, nearly two million people would have been forcibly relocated from their ancestral land.

Plans to dam the Lancang/Mekong River have already sparked bitter international disputes between China and its South-east Asian neighbours. Similarly, blueprints to harness the Nu River and Mugecuo Lake are meeting stiff resistance from outside Chinese borders -- in Thailand and Burma. A nationwide public campaign of opposition has been gathering strength too.

The Nu River is the last free-flowing international river in the region, and also South-east Asia's second longest. It begins in the Tibetan mountains, crosses Yunnan province and flows into Burma and Thailand.

China's plan to build up to 13 hydroelectric dams upstream has already drawn angry protests from the ethnic communities along the river in Thailand and Burma.

Late last year, the South-east Asia Rivers Network based in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai sponsored a letter to the Chinese ambassador in Bangkok signed by 83 Thai and Burmese groups, claiming the project would have devastating effects on the wildlife sanctuary and livelihoods of people downstream.

A new letter of protest was sent to President Hu Jintao this week, bearing the signatures of 76 organizations from 33 countries from Greenpeace to International Rivers Network. "Millions of people of over twenty ethnicities depend on the Nu/Salween River watershed for their livelihoods," the letter said. "Dam projects risk drastic impacts to all of these resources."

According to the petition, nine of the 13 dams would be located in an area designated by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Heritage Site.

The site, named the Three Parallel Rivers, is recognised as one of the richest temperate regions of the world. The area contains over 6,000 different plant species and is believed to home to more than half of China's native animal species, including the snow leopard.

If the project goes ahead, at least 50,000 people, mainly members of the region's 22 ethnic minorities, would have to be relocated. The environmental and social impact of the controversial project has alarmed experts at home who this week submitted a petition to the Chinese parliament asking for a scientific assessment of the project before its initiation.

"The Nu River dam project must go through an independent and authoritative investigation before any decision on its future should be made," says He Shaoling, a senior engineer at the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research.

She represents a group of environmentalists and scientists, whose opposition to the project has so far succeeded to push back the groundbreaking date by more than six months.

The construction of the first, 180,000-kilowatt hydropower station, located at Liuku in Yunnan province, was originally scheduled for September 2003. In June 2003, the 'Yunnan Daily' announced the establishment of Yunnan Huadian Nu River Hydropower Development Co., formed by local energy companies and the China Huadian Group.

With control of 51 percent of the shares in the project, China Huadian Group is seen as the main beneficiary among the power companies, vying up to tap waters resources in western China.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Qin Guangrong, vice governor of Yunnan province, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that hydropower development in the province is cost saving and would yield high returns. Projected capacity from the dam cascade is 20,000 megawatts -- a sizable amount for a country plagued by power shortages.

China suffered power failures last year in as many as 19 of its 29 provinces, and this strained production in industrial powerhouses such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong. To reduce consumption, some provinces were forced to impose higher tariffs in peak hours and make large enterprises use power on a quota basis.

Power consumption in China rose at the fastest pace since the late 1970s, as manufacturers raised output to meet growing demand for cars, steel and consumer goods. According to the State Power Information Network, power consumption rose 15 percent in 2003 to record 1.91 trillion kilowatt-hours.

As power demand is projected to continue outstripping supply, China's power producers have rushed to add capacity through acquisitions and construction of new projects. Thanks to deregulation and privatization, some of the newly independent power entities have succeeded in securing new water resources to produce hydropower.

However, accusations about cronyism have also erupted over the dam project on the Mugecuo Lake -- the powerful "princeling" Li Xiaopeng, son of elderly leader Li Peng, is said to have secured the right to the project thanks to his family' s vested interests in the industry.

Details of the dam to be built by China Huaneng Group have been kept secret and earlier reports of the project in the media have come to a halt.