Agence France-Presse
February 18, 2006

Over the objections of its neighbours, China has begun building a dam on its portion of the Mekong River, which will be second in size only to the Three Gorges project, Agence France-Presse reports.

BEIJING – China has begun building a controversial hydro-electric power station on its portion of the Mekong River, state media reported Sunday, despite objections from Southeast Asian countries which fear it will then gain control of the river. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported workers have begun building the power station, which will be second in size only to the mammoth Three Gorges Dam power project. Originating in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, the Mekong, runs 4,880 kilometers (3,050 miles) through southwestern China as well as five other Asian countries – Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam. These countries are worried that with the completion of the dam, China will be able to control the river’s flow and the discharge of water into the sections of the river running through their countries. The Xiaowan Hydropower Station will be situated in the middle reaches of the river within China’s southwestern Yunnan province, and will have a total installed generating capacity of 4.2 million kilowatts. The cost of constructing the power station is estimated at 22.2 billion yuan (2.6 billion US dollars) and the project is scheduled to be completed in 2012. It is an important part of China’s strategy of transmitting electricity from resource-rich western areas to power-short, densely populated areas in the east coast, such as Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other eastern provinces, according to Xinhua. The Xiaowan power station is one of eight power stations China is building on its portion of the river. The total installed capacity of the power plants will reach 15.55 million kilowatts, according to a news conference held by China State Power Corporation and Yunnan provincial government in the provincial capital of Kunming on Friday. The eight hydroelectric power stations, with Xiaowan and Nuozhadu as the key, will generate 74.1 billion kilowatt-hours annually, Xinhua said. One of the eight — the Manwan Hydroelectric Power Station, with an installed capacity of 1.25 million kilowatts — has already been built. The first generating unit of the 1.35-million-kilowatt Dachaoshan power plant has also gone into operation. Preparations for other power plants are well under way, Xinhua said.