Nu River: one of only two major rivers in China not yet dammed

Chinese environmental activists and journalists, scholars and scientists have mounted an impassioned campaign urging Beijing to release the environmental-impact assessment and hold public hearings on the Nu River proposal. But a recent report in Guangzhou’s Southern Weekend (Nanfang zhoumo) weekly newspaper suggests this is not going to happen. “Southern Weekend has learned from a reliable source that no further hearings will be held on the Nu River plan in general, or the EIA issue in particular,” wrote the newspaper’s Beijing-based staff reporter Deng Jie. (An edited version of the Dec. 27 article appears below.) A piece in Wen Wei Po on Jan. 11 lends credence to the Southern Weekend report. The Hong Kong newspaper is reporting that the official review of the Nu River EIA has been completed. And the EIA, which recommends going ahead with the construction of four dams in the first instance, will not be made public because of Chinese confidentiality laws governing international rivers, the newspaper reports. Beginning high on the Tibetan plateau, the Nu River passes through southwest China before entering Burma, where it is known as the Thanlwin (in Burmese) or the Salween (in English). The 2,800-kilometre river forms Burma’s border with Thailand for 120 km, and eventually empties into the Andaman Sea. The free-flowing status of the Nu, one of only two major rivers in China uninterrupted by dams, is under serious threat from all three of the countries it passes through. – Kelly Haggart

Environmental protection’s new power is growing
by Deng Jie, Southern Weekend (Nanfang zhoumo)A year ago, on Jan. 18, 2005, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) ordered work to be halted on 30 large projects. Of these, 26 were power plants that involved eight provinces and three giant power producers, including the Three Gorges Corporation. SEPA said construction of these projects violated the country’s Environmental Impact Assessment Law. Observers in China saw SEPA’s move as risky, given that big names were behind these proposed or ongoing projects. The first three items on the list were the Xiluodu dam and two projects that form part of the Three Gorges scheme, and all three were being developed by one of the most powerful electricity producers in China, the Three Gorges Corp. Li Yongan, the corporation’s general manager, vehemently denied that the three projects violated the EIA law. His first reaction was to ignore questions raised by the media and to turn for help to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The heads of other power companies on SEPA’s list did the same. SEPA’s January 2005 directive was its most sweeping since China’s EIA law came into force in September 2003. The legislation requires developers of large projects to provide a detailed environmental impact assessment, and to refrain from starting work on a scheme until the environmental agency has approved it. The suspension of the plan to build a cascade of dams on the Nu River in southwest China was another event of major significance and symbolism. The temporary halt to the scheme was the result of the combined efforts of SEPA and China’s growing ranks of non-government organizations. In Aug