Tag Archive for 'china'

Empty Nets on the Mekong

Published on 05/06/2013 in aquatic ecosystems and dams. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Fishermen along the Mekong River capture their dinner by unfurling large nets.

Retrieved from: NY Times

“In my last post, I described how our attempts at fishing in the Mekong River had produced meager results, which was somewhat puzzling because the Mekong produces the largest harvest of freshwater fish in the world, by far.

“As a father, this was frustrating; catching fish was the top priority of my 10-year old son, Luca, and I was determined that he fulfill that goal. But as a river ecologist, our low success rate had me curious about the status of fish populations in this river.

“And it wasn’t just that I’m an inexperienced angler trying to catch fish in a big, complicated river (and using a rod and reel in a place where people generally use nets and traps). We’d spent one afternoon with experienced fishers — using the right equipment — and we’d hauled in a pretty small catch for the effort. Were Mekong fisheries in decline?

Read more: NY Times

sammykayed

China’s Massive Water Diversion

Published on 03/30/2013 in water diversions, water grabs and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: NY Times

“This month, a hundred years after the completion of the Panama Canal, China is expected to finish the first phase of its gigantic South-North Water Transfer Project, known in Chinese as Nanshui beidiao gongcheng — literally, “to divert southern water north.” The phrase evokes the suggestion, attributed to Mao, that “since the south has a great deal of water, and the north very little, we should borrow some of it.”

“In realizing Mao’s dream of moving huge quantities of water from areas of plenty to those of want, Beijing is building a modern marvel, this century’s equivalent of the Panama Canal. But whereas the canal inaugurated a century of faith in the ability of human ingenuity to reshape the natural world, the South-North Water Transfer Project is a testament to the limits of engineering solutions to problems of basic environmental scarcity.

“China is one of the most water-rich countries in the world. But as Mao observed, its water resources are unevenly distributed and overwhelmingly concentrated in the south and far west. Water scarcity has always been a problem for northern China, but shortages have reached crisis levels as a result of rapid economic development.”

Read more: NY Times

sammykayed

China Is Top Dam Builder, Going Where Others Won’t

Published on 12/31/2012 in dams, policy, rivers and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.cambodia.org

“Up a sweeping jungle valley in a remote corner of Cambodia, Chinese engineers and workers are raising a 100-meter- (330-foot-) high dam over the protests of villagers and activists. Only Chinese companies are willing to tame the Tatay and other rivers of Koh Kong province, one of Southeast Asia’s last great wilderness areas.

It’s a scenario that is hardly unique. China’s giant state enterprises and banks have completed, are working on or are proposing some 300 dams from Algeria to Myanmar.

Poor countries contend the dams are crucial to bringing electricity to tens of millions who live without it and boosting living standards. Environmental activists and other opponents counter that China, the world’s No. 1 dam builder, is willing and able to go where most Western companies, the World Bank and others won’t tread anymore because of environmental, social, political or financing concerns.”

Read more: International Rivers

lily victoria

Why the time for a China-India water treaty is now

Published on 07/23/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, dams and management. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

The Brahmaputra originates in Tibet, where it is known as the Yarlung Zangbo.

Retrieved from: CNN

“China and India need to reach agreement on how they will manage water from one of the world’s great rivers — the Yarlung-Zangbo-Brahmaputra — before it becomes another serious impediment to relations between the two Asian heavyweights.

“Water scarcity already affects large parts of China and India. As their populations grow and income levels rise, forcing up demand for water-intensive food such as meat, the supply situation will worsen. Inevitably, that means tension over water resources.

“There is a regional precedent for a bilateral water treaty: bitter rivals India and Pakistan, under prodding from the World Bank, signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 to cover water use from the Indus and five other rivers that flow through the two nations. While far from perfect, the treaty has given farmers and other users in both countries a framework on which they can make crop production and hydropower decisions.

“Already, China’s construction of a 540-megawatt hydropower dam on the Yarlung-Zangbo, which flows for 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) across the southern Tibetan plateau before it enters Indian territory and becomes the Brahmaputra, is cause for concern in New Delhi. The dam, known as the Zangmu, is due for completion in 2015.

“While the Zangmu dam is a relatively small project, there is something much bigger on the horizon: a 38,000-megawatt dam at Motuo, near the river’s “Great Bend,” which potentially could reduce the volume of water flowing into India and Bangladesh. While China maintains that any dams it builds on its part of the river will have little downstream impact, up to 150 million people living in eastern India and Bangladesh could be affected.

“Almost half the world’s population — the 3.5 billion people living in Central, South and East Asia — relies on water from the great rivers that rise in the Himalayas, the Tibetan plateau, and the Tibetan ethnic areas of China.”

Read more: CNN

sammykayed

Landslide Risk at Reservoir Cited in China

Published on 04/19/2012 in dam removal, dams, displacement of people, erosion and floods. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

“A growing threat of landslides on ground surrounding the massive Three Gorges Dam reservoir could force the government to relocate 100,000 more residents of the area, from which 46,000 were moved earlier, an expert with China’s land and resources ministry said this week.

“The dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric project, has been a target of criticism by environmentalists and some geologists since before the reservoir began to inundate a long stretch of the Yangtze River, long regarded as one of the world’s scenic wonders, in 2003. A massive landslide occurred that year, followed by others, but only in 2007 did the government admit that the rising waters were causing instability and that a catastrophe could occur unless preventive steps were taken.

“Officials have recorded 430 landslides and nearly 2,900 smaller geological incidents along the lakeshore, and 5,386 other potentially dangerous sites are being monitored, Mr. Liu said.

“The government relocated 1.4 million people to build the dam and reservoir, which is comparatively narrow but longer than Lake Superior in North America. The latest proposed relocation would affect residents along hundreds of miles of twisting lakeshore from Jiangjin, in the Chongqing municipality, to the dam’s location at Yichang, in Hubei Province.”

Read More: nytimes

Chippie Kislik

Countries sign pact to address water issues

Published on 03/13/2012 in climate change, peak water, policy, water conservation and water rights. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Countries sign pact to address water issues

“China has established a minister level cooperation mechanism with Japan and the Republic of Korea as the three countries aim to tackle water problems together, officials announced onTuesday.

“The three countries signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on the Mechanism of Ministerial Meeting at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseilles, France, to deepen the coordination of the three countries in managing water resources and dealing with water disaster.

“The three countries issued a joint statement in 2009 on the sustainable development of water issues, saying that they aim to establish a trilateral mechanism for cooperation in water resources, focusing on the management of river and water resources and adapting to climate changes.

“Chen also proposed that water research institutions from these countries conduct joint research projects in key areas such as water risk assessment, early warnings during flash floods, water and soil conservation and agricultural water saving technology. The three parties will also accelerate the application of these research outcomes and support government decision making.”

Read more: Chinadaily

Chippie Kislik

Yangtze delta hit by worst drought in decades

Published on 05/26/2011 in aquatic ecosystems, drought and hydropower. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Poor prospects ... a fisherman in hope of a catch trudges past a dried-up section of Guihu Lake in Wuhu, Anhui province.

Retrieved from: SMH

“The Yangtze delta is caught in its worst drought in 50 years,  forcing an unprecedented release of water from the Three Gorges Dam and prompting warnings of power shortages.

“The drought is damaging crops, threatening wildlife and raising doubts about the viability of China’s huge water diversion ambitions.

“Up until June 10, billions of cubic metres of water will be released from the dam as engineers sacrifice hydro-electric generation for irrigation, drinking supplies and ecosystem support.

“The drastic measure comes amid warnings of power shortages and highlights the severity of the dry spell in the Yangtze delta, which supports 400 million people and 40 per cent of China’s economic activity.

“From January to April, the worst-hit province, Hubei, has had 40 per cent less rainfall than the average over the same period since 1961. Shanghai, Jiangsu and Hunan are severely affected.

“Regional authorities have de- clared more than 1300 lakes ”dead”, which means they are out of use for irrigation and drinking supply. The shortages affect 4.4 million people and 3.2 million farm animals, according to the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

“The narrowing and shallowing of the Yangtze – Asia’s longest river – and its tributaries has stranded thousands of boats and left a 220-kilometre stretch off limits for container ships.

“The central government has sent water pumps and diesel generators to Hubei and Hunan to ease the impact. This is expensive and adds to the pressures on China’s energy supply system at a time when the state grid authorities are warning of the worst summer power cuts in seven years.”

Read more: SMH

sammykayed

Critics Hail Admission of Chinese Dam Flaws

Published on 05/21/2011 in aquatic ecosystems, dams and displacement of people. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: blog spot

“Critics of China’s Three Gorges dam said an unusual Chinese government statement this week acknowledging serious flaws in the project, while unlikely to mark a major shift in policy, could provide ammunition to those opposing other hydropower projects in the world’s biggest dam-building nation.

“In a statement approved by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the country’s cabinet, the State Council, said Thursday that the $23 billion Three Gorges project, while providing “huge comprehensive benefits,” also suffered from a number of problems that were “urgently in need of resolution.”

“Among the problems were ecological deterioration, the potential for geological disasters and the uncertain status of the more than a million people relocated to make way for the dam.

“Beijing has publicly recognized problems associated with the dam on several occasions before, but activists said Thursday’s statement was unique in bearing the imprimatur of Mr. Wen, the country’s No. 2 leader.

“The National Energy Agency announced in January that China plans to add 140 gigawatts of new hydropower capacity over the next five years, with the goal, outlined in the latest five-year plan, of producing 11% of its energy from nonfossil fuel sources by 2015.

“The plans include a long-debated cascade of 13 dams along the Nu River in the country’s ecologically diverse southwest, which is home to dozens of endangered species.”

Read more: WSJ

sammykayed

Emerging Powers Harnessing Neighbours’ Hydroelectricity

Published on 04/25/2011 in dams, displacement of people, greenwashing, hydropower, policy, privatization, rivers, water rights, water wars and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

The Madeira river, where Brazil hopes to build a hydropower plant under an agreement with Bolivia. Photo retrieved from: www.ipsnews.net

“Emerging countries like Brazil and China are building numerous hydroelectric dams at home and abroad to help drive their economic growth. But while in Latin America the phenomenon is touted as an integration process, in Asia it has generated tension over the shared use of rivers.

Brazil, the leader of this strategy in Latin America, has an agreement to build five hydropower dams in Peru, and is interested in building two similar plants, which would depend on reaching agreements with Bolivia: a joint venture between the two countries on the stretch of the Madeira river that forms part of the border between them, and a Bolivian plant.

A large part of the energy generated by these projects will be exported to Brazil, whose government projects an annual 5.9 percent increase in demand for energy from now to 2019, when the country will need 167,000 MW, over two-thirds of which will come from hydroelectricity.

Building dams outside of the country is one way to evade stiff opposition from environmentalists and indigenous groups in the Brazilian Amazon, where nearly all of the country’s as-yet untapped hydropower potential is found.

Cachuela Esperanza on the Beni river in northern Bolivia, near the Brazilian border, will have a potential of 990 MW, according to a project drawn up by Tecsult, a leading Canadian consulting firm. That is nearly the equivalent of Bolivia’s entire demand for energy. ”

Read more: IPS

lily victoria

Avoiding Water Wars

Published on 03/07/2011 in agriculture, climate change, dams, drought, hydropower, lakes, management, peak water, policy, privatization, rivers, tap water, water diversions, water rights, water shortage, water wars and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.heavenawaits.com

“With the climate change and as a consequence shrinking water availability across the Middle East, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, violent conflict between states is increasingly likely. This matter was on the agenda of annul World Water Week forum in Stockholm held in 2006, but it could not answer the question raised in the meeting whether we are heading for an era of “hydrological warfare” in which rivers, lakes and aquifers become national security assets to be fought over, or controlled through proxy armies and client states? Or can water act as a force for peace and cooperation? It has been estimated by the experts that by 2025, more than two billion people are expected to live in countries that find it difficult or impossible to mobilize the water resources needed to meet the needs of agriculture, industry and households. Population growth, urbanization and the rapid development of manufacturing industries are relentlessly increasing demand for finite water resources. Symptoms of the resulting water stress are increasingly visible. In northern China, rivers now run dry in their lower reaches for much of the year. In parts of Pakistan and India, groundwater levels are falling so rapidly that from 10 percent to 20 percent of agricultural production is under threat.

In the past, there have been wars between the countries over religions, usurpation of territories and control of resources including oil, but in view of acute shortages of water in Africa, Middle East, Asia and elsewhere, the future wars could be fought over water.

In addition to Kashmir dispute, the Indus River Basin has been an area of conflict between India and Pakistan for about four decades. Spanning 1,800 miles, the river and its tributaries together make up one of the largest irrigation canals in the world. Dams and canals built in order to provide hydropower and irrigation have dried up stretches of the Indus River. The division of the river basin water has created friction among the countries of South Asia, and among their states and provinces. Accusations of overdrawing of share of water made by each province have resulted in the lack of water supplies to coastal regions of Pakistan. India and Bangladesh have also dispute over Ganges River water and India is resorting to water theft there as well. Nepal and Bangladesh are also victims of India’s water thievery. India had dispute with Bangladesh over Farrakha Barrage, with Nepal over Mahakali River and with Pakistan over 1960 Indus Water Treaty.”

Read more: Pakistan Observer

lily victoria