The boundary marking a rare fish reserve on the Yangtze River looks likely to be redrawn, after planners earmarked the site for a controversial new hydropower plant.
By Wang Yan
Rarely is hydropower non-controversial, especially in China, where the size and scale of hydropower projects often results in lasting environmental and the social problems. The relocation of local residents, and the destruction of historical sites are just two examples of the many issues linked to hydropower and dam construction.
Efforts have been made over the last couple of years to curtail the fast growth of the hydropower industry. However, a potential encroachment upon the Yangtze River Rare Fish Reserve by a planned hydropower station has caught the public’s attention.
An Open Letter
In November 2010, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) gave the green light to a proposal to revise the boundaries of the Yangtze River Rare Fish Reserve, reducing the boundary from 331.742 square kilometers to 317.138 square kilometers. In early January this year, the MEP sought to solicit pubic opinion by publishing the proposed readjustment on its official website.
The readjustment immediately drew attention from environmentalists, biologists and experts specializing in water resources. To their chagrin, the readjustment of the rare fish reserve boundary actually means making room for the construction of the Xiaonanhai hydropower station on a section of the upper stream of the Yangtze River, which is under the jurisdiction of the Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China.
Environmental experts have protested against the Xiaonanhai project in recent years and warned that the dam, once built, would threaten aquatic life, and leave the rare fish reserve existing in name only.
In early March, Fan Xiao, a geologist from Sichuan Province, published an open letter addressed to seven Chinese senior officials including Premier Wen Jiabao, Environmental Protection Minister Zhou Shengxian, Water Conservancy Minister Chen Lei and Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, calling for them to make a “wise, responsible decision at the crucial moment in the preservation of the Yangtze.”
During an interview with NewsChina, Fan Xiao, an expert in the environmental impact caused by dam construction, explained that the debate over the Xiaonanhai project in fact began as far back as 2009, when the Chongqing Municipality submitted the plan of Xiaonanhai dam to the central authorities.
Cao Wenxuan, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), reiterated the dangers of encroaching into the rare fish boundary, in his report evaluating the project’s potential environmental impact. According to Cao, the proposed location of the dam is a life source for fish species both inside and outside the reserve, and is vitally important to the survival of rare fish species and the propagation of fishery resources in the Three Gorges reservoir area downstream.
Fan Xiao cited Cao Wenxuan’s research in his open letter, “Fish eggs spawned in the upper stream section inside the reserve need to flow at least 200 to 500 kilometers to fulfill the process of incubation and growth. The new dam would provide an insurmountable obstacle to the fish’s pattern of migratory breeding. ”
The total length of the Yangtze River trunk stream section running through the rare fish reserve is 353 kilometers, which would be shortened by the readjustment plan by almost 100 kilometers. “This means cutting the trunk stream section inside the reserve by at least 27 percent,” said Fan.
Making Way for Construction
This is not the first time that the Yangtze River Rare Fish Reserve has had to make way for the construction of a hydropower project. The provincial-level fish reserve, the predecessor of the current reserve, was first established in 1997 in the Yangtze River section between Hejiang and Leibo. It was later elevated to the status of national-level reserve in 2000. But in 2005, due to the construction of the Xiangjia dam and the Xiluodu hydropower stations, the fish reserve, with the approval of the central government, was moved downstream between the end of the Three Gorges Dam area and Yibin, with the length of the Yangtze River trunk stream in the reserve shrinking from 443.41 kilometers to 353.16 kilometers. To make up for the loss in stream length, sections of the Chishuihe and Minjiang rivers, two tributaries of the Yangtze, were included in the fish reserve.
The then National Environment Protection Bureau (the predecessor of the current Ministry of Environmental Protection) announced that, “no hydropower projects should be undertaken inside the readjusted conservation zone.”
In 2007, however, the Chongqing municipal government began cooperation with the Three Gorges Construction Company in constructing a new hydropower station at Xiaonanhai. The project’s plan, after being submitted to the central authorities in 2009, drew strong criticism from environmental specialists, due to its possible negative impact on fish habitats in the upper reaches of the Yangtze.
