![]() ![]() Two years ago, construction workers began blasting a tunnel in the mountainside and constructing a dam across the river. Locals depend on the pellucid waters for food, irrigation and hygiene. The latest river to be targeted is the Chengfeng, which is home to giant salamander called "wawayu" or baby fish because of the wailing sounds they make. But with 85,000 dams in China, the multiple affect is huge and even when small, can cause immense ecological damage, particularly when clustered together, poorly designed and irresponsibly operated. While mega-projects like the Three Gorges Dam or the South-North water diversion affect millions of people, the impact of each small diversion in remote areas is often felt by a less than 1,000 families. Even after the environmental assessment law was passed in 2003, the local government admits that 39% of new projects continued to go ahead without proper approval. Both are privately run with investment kick-backs for local officials who ignore state regulations so the plants can generate profits. There are parallels with the illegal coal mines that the central government claims to have been cracking down on for decades. How else do they force them through so quickly?" "The government officials have all invested in these projects. "I have complained again and again, but they fob me off and say, 'Go ahead and sue us. The power company, Xingfa, has offered compensation of 110,000 yuan for the third of a hectare she has lost, but she was given no choice and has little opportunity for negotiation or legal redress. "You can see the cracks on my wall," she says. "I want people to know about this."Ĭloser to the plant, Zhou Xiaoqi (name changed) was furious that the Raojiahe dam cut through her farmland and eroded the riverbank below her house. "What can we do? We are just ordinary people. Her frustration was prompted, he said, by the loss of their livelihood and the government's refusal to listen to their complaints or offer fair compensation. His wife was jailed for three days for throwing stones at the developers. Now he breaks rocks on river beds that have dried up after their water was diverted. Liu Jianguo (name changed) was a farmer until his land was flooded by the Raojiahe hydroproject three years ago. The plants generate small amounts of power, the profits are taken by officials and their environment suffers. Although this is one of the poorest areas in Hubei province, locals say they get little benefit. ![]() Two out of every five built since then were illegally pushed ahead without the necessary checks on the likely impact on people and ecosystems.ĭriving from the county town of Songbai, almost everyone the Guardian meets along the roadside is angry at the reckless development of water resources. Most than half of the 88 hydropower plants in the region were built before environmental assessments were made obligatory in 2003. Shennongjia illustrates what can go wrong. The debate - which has spread to issues of governance, censorship and citizen rights - was sparked by reports last month that revealed four rivers have dried up, dozens of hydropower diversions have been built without environmental impact assessments, and local government officials have been profiting from shares they hold in the companies they are supposed to be regulating. ![]()
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