(April 1, 2010) More scientists are joining the debate over whether China’s Wenchuan May 2008 earthquake was triggered by the Zipingpu dam.
China dam plans raise Mekong fears
(April 1, 2010) China will ramp up construction of dams, reservoirs and wells in response to a severe drought in the country’s south-west, but the move is likely to raise tensions with downstream countries, which have already blamed reduced river flows on Beijing.
Golf clubs told to save water
(March 31, 2010) Fewer than 7 percent of Beijing’s golf courses use reclaimed water for irrigation, despite municipal guidelines that strongly suggest they should do so.
Despair as the mighty Mekong falters
(March 29, 2010) Chinese dams blamed for falling water levels and erosion of river bank.
Mekong states to face China over river
(March 27, 2010) Four Southeast Asian countries badly hit by falling water levels in the mighty Mekong river will next week confront China, blamed for squeezing the river with dams, but concessions from Beijing are unlikely.
The 2010 annual report on China’s environment: Friends of Nature’s China Green Book
(March 25, 2010) Last Friday, Beijing-based NGO, Friends of Nature, released its Annual Report on China’s Environment and Development 2010, a collection of articles from some of China’s top environmental groups, legal and environmental scholars, and journalists.
City to start progressive charging for water
(March 23, 2010) Beijing will pilot progressive charging for residential water consumption in the first half of this year, according to the Beijing Water Authority. Progressive charging for residential use will work on a quota basis, the Beijing Water Authority said Sunday. A consumption quota will be given to residents, from which anything over the fixed amount will be charged at twice the standard rate.
Inspection of city water usage
(March 22, 2010) The authorities are launching an inspection of venues in Beijing that consume the largest amounts of water, with a focus on public baths, as countries around the globe mark World Water Day today.
Tibet’s rivers strangled by dams
(March 22, 2010) China’s grand pipe-dream is to divert abundant water from the Tibetan highlands to reach water-starved cities of the north and west of China, which have around 300 million people, says Canadian documentary maker Michael Buckley in his recent film “Meltdown in Tibet”.
A river will run through it: project seeks to restore the Yongding River in Beijing
(March 18, 2010) Officials in Beijing have approved a plan to rebuild the once-flowing Yongding river in the southwest corner of the city. According to reports, officials have agreed to spend 17-billion RMB ($2.48-billion) to construct an ecosystem of interconnected creeks and lakes.
As economy booms, China faces major water shortage
(March 16, 2010) A decade ago, China’s leaders gave the go-ahead to a colossal plan to bring more than 8 trillion gallons of water a year from the rivers of central China to the country’s arid north. The project would have erected towering dams, built hundreds of miles of pipelines and tunnels, and created vast reservoirs with a price tag three times that of the giant Three Gorges Dam.
Blame on Chinese dams rise as Mekong River dries up
(March 17, 2010) As the water level in the Mekong River dips to a record 50-year low, a familiar pattern of fault-finding has risen to the surface. China, the regional giant through which parts of South-east Asia’s largest waterway flows through, is again at the receiving end of verbal salvoes from its neighbours.
When the Mekong runs dry
(March 17, 2010) Low water levels on the upper Mekong River have renewed criticism over hydropower dams China has erected on the waterway’s upper reaches. Environmental groups and governments have pinned blame on China’s inward-looking water management policies, although some experts say the real culprit is unusually severe drought conditions in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Laos.
Purification project launched to prevent water blooms
(March 17, 2010) The purification project was launched on Tuesday at the Beijing Zoo for major water bodies in the city, and will be finished by August. The project is expected to improve the clarity of the water and also help build a self-purification system for the lakes, in particular, effectively preventing water blooms, which occur every year in Beijing.
Chinese dams blamed for Mekong’s dwindling flows and fish stocks
(March 14, 2010) Something is wrong with the mighty Mekong River, which frames the lives of 250 million people in six countries of Southeast Asia through which it flows and on which 60 million people depend directly for their livelihoods.
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