South China Morning Post
May 30, 2006

The severe northern drought has shut down the Xiaolangdi Dam, the largest and most expensive hydro-electric scheme on the Yellow River.

The severe northern drought has shut down the Xiaolangdi Dam, the largest and most expensive hydro-electric scheme on the Yellow River. Officials said the dam in central Henan province stopped generating electricity on May 20 after the central Government ordered the release of water held in the reservoir to relieve shortages downstream. “This has brought us great economic losses, but we were told not to worry about profits,” said an official contacted by phone. The project, with six generators with a capacity of 1.8 million kw, is backed by the World Bank with loans of more than US$1 billion (HK$7.7 billion). Electricity production only started at the end of January and may not resume until mid-July. Other major dams like the Sanmenxia have also shut down. The Xiaolangdi project is also designed to prevent floods because the reservoir is intended to trap silt and prevent it being deposited downstream, thus raising the river bed. It is thought to be cheaper to trap the sediment instead of raising the height of the dykes. In recent years, the Yellow River has been running dry for most of the year, sometimes as far upstream as Zhengzhou. This year’s drought appears to be unusually severe. Some areas have not had rain for 200 days and farmers across north and northwestern China face economic disaster. In Shandong, more than 2.6 million hectares of farmland have been left barren and the province has restricted drinking water to less than three cubic metres per person a month. In Henan province, factories have been shut down to ensure there are sufficient supplies of drinking water. A national drought conference closed this week with a decision to despatch five extra working groups in addition to nine action groups already co-ordinating emergency measures. Many cities are restricting water supplies. Tianjin municipality, which has been suffering drought for four years running, will start rationing water from July 1. Sichuan province is also suffering from drought and 1,000 industrial enterprises have suspended production.