THREE GORGES DAM THREATENS FISH POPULATION

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December 21/2005

 

*New Yangtze dams spell disaster for fish*

by Kelly Haggart and Mu Lan

As the Three Gorges Project Corporation prepares to start work on a string

of dams on the Jinsha River (as the upper Yangtze is called), a group of

Sichuan University undergraduates has won accolades for a research project

that warns of the serious threat the structures pose to the river's wild

fish, and the communities that depend on them.

 

The company building the Three Gorges project has announced that work will

begin before the end of this month on Xiluodu, located 1,000 kilometres

upstream of Three Gorges and slated to be China's second-largest dam.

Construction work is scheduled to start in March on another big dam,

Xiangjiaba, and ground will be broken on two further projects Ð Wudongde and

Baihetan Ð in the next few years.

 

The four new hydropower stations will have a combined installed capacity of

38.5 million kilowatts, twice the generating power of Three

Gorges.1<http://www.threegorgesprobe.org/tgp/index.cfm?DSP=content & ContentID=143\

94#¹>Apart

from producing power, the projects are designed to tackle a serious

problem facing the Three Gorges reservoir: They are meant to help block silt

and prevent the dangerous buildup of sediment behind the Three Gorges dam.

 

The projects will also fulfill another function, absorbing some of the

construction workers and equipment that will be made redundant as work winds

down at the Three Gorges site.

 

But environmental groups have warned that the new dams could wipe out

fish species whose migration routes to traditional breeding grounds will be

blocked. Subjecting these concerns to scientific scrutiny, 13 students from

Sichuan University's Environmental Protection Volunteer Association

conducted intensive fieldwork in the region between July 2004 and February

2005. They concluded that as many as 60 fish species could be driven to

extinction after construction of the four dams, especially Xiluodu and

Xiangjaba. Species under threat include the endangered Chinese

sturgeon (*Zhonghua

xun*), white sturgeon (*bai xun*), Yangtze (or Dabry's) sturgeon (*dashi xun

*) and rouge fish (*yanzhi yu*).

 

The students also drew attention to the fact that the dams are to be built

in an area that had been set aside as a national rare-fish conservation

zone. In 1987, the State Council designated a 500-km section of the river

between Hejiang and Leibo counties as the National Yangtze Rare Fish Reserve

Zone. Under China's Environmental Protection Act (Section 3, Article 17),

which came into force in December 1989, no industrial enterprises or

infrastructure projects likely to cause environmental damage can be built in

scenic spots, nature reserves or other special areas designated by the

central or provincial governments. To get around this barrier, the Three

Gorges Project Corp. asked the State Council to redraw the boundaries of the

conservation area to exclude the heart of the zone Ð the stretch of the

river between the future Xiluodu and Xiangjiaba dams.

 

The State Council agreed to the request in April 2005, relocating the

protected fish zone to an area downstream of Xiangjiaba, thus clearing the

way for the dams to be built. The fish, meanwhile, haven't moved -- and,

indeed, species cannot be shifted without consequence from a niche carved

out over millennia. The new reserve zone is a bit bigger than the original

area, but the extra space will be no consolation to the fish, the students

pointed out. The original zone reflected the true boundaries of the

traditional breeding and feeding grounds of rare species such as the white

sturgeon and Yangtze sturgeon.

 

In a recent article, Prof. Chen Guojie, senior researcher at the Chengdu

Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, also warns that the spawning

zones of such species will be almost totally obliterated if Xiangjiaba is

built. Furthermore, the new dams will bring about changes to the river

regime Ð altering water velocity and temperature, and sedimentation patterns

Ð that will have a major impact on the species' new habitat, and their

chances of survival in it.

 

The Sichuan University students focused their research in the rare-fish

reserve zone, as originally designated, in the section of the Yangtze

between Hejiang (150 km upstream of Chongqing) and Leibo counties. Under the

guidance of their professors and experts from other research institutes,

they interviewed officials, scientists, engineers, fishermen, restaurant

owners and local residents. They interviewed 108 people in all, and visited

more than 20 government agencies involved in environmental protection, and

water and fishery management. They also went to fish markets and restaurants

to find out what was being bought, sold and consumed.

 

The students' work recently won recognition in the form of a Ford Motor

Company conservation and environmental grant. The theme of this year's Ford

grants to Chinese environmental groups and researchers was water

conservation, and the Sichuan University student group has received 10,000

yuan (US$1,200) to pursue further research. The awards committee, which

included Qu Geping, former director of China's State Environmental

Protection Administration, praised the students for their comprehensive

project.

 

At the awards ceremony in Beijing last month, another grant recipient, Prof.

Yu Xiaogang of the Yunnan-based Green Watershed environmental group,

commended the Ford panel for choosing water conservation as its overarching

theme this year, showing that " it has seen the important link between water

resources conservation and China's efforts to achieve sustainable

development and build a harmonious society. "

 

The students found that human activities, particularly dam-building, have

already led to a precipitous decline of rare fish in the Yangtze River. For

example, the 2,000-km stretch of the river from Leibo county in Sichuan

province to Jiujiang city downstream in Jiangxi province was once teeming

with white sturgeon, which is classified as highly endangered both on

China's own national list and on that of the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). But since the Yangtze was blocked for

the first time by the Gezhouba dam in 1981, and the sturgeon cut off from

their traditional spawning grounds upstream, they are now rarely seen.

 

Overfishing and illegal fishing have also helped to decimate rare-fish

populations in the original reserve zone, the students found. To increase

their haul, local fishermen use nets that catch ever smaller fish, and drive

speedboats into shoals of fish and shock them with electric instruments. The

local fishery management agency, equipped only with old, slow patrol boats,

has a hard time policing the illegal practices.

 

Consumption habits are also a problem. Years ago, fishermen would throw the

young fish in their catch back into the river so they would have a chance to

grow and spawn. But now local residents have developed a taste for younger

fish, as restaurants owners keep telling them that smaller fish are tastier.

 

 

According to the revised boundaries approved by the State Council, the new

rare-fish reserve zone will cover the section of the Yangtze from Yibin

downstream to Chongqing, along with the lower reaches of the Min River and a

small section of the Chishui River near where it joins the Yangtze.

 

Experts have repeatedly urged that the whole of the Chishui River as it

flows through Guizhou and Yunnan provinces should be included in the

protection zone. Although the central government has yet to decide on that

issue, Prof. Yu of Green Watershed says there is one piece of good news for

the river: The Canadian International Development Agency has earmarked 50

million yuan (US$6.25 million) for a Chishui valley management project,

which, it is hoped, could help keep new dams at bay.

 

But could China's national liquor turn out to be the real saviour of the

Chishui River? Guizhou provincial officials have pledged not to allow

dam-building on their section of the Chishui because the Maotai Liquor

Company, which draws water from the river, has promised to pay more local

taxes if the river Ð and its water quality Ð is kept undisturbed.

 

However, neither Canadians nor Maotai drinkers are likely to be able to save

the Chishui valley from dam development. Downstream in Yunnan province, the

Yudong dam has already been built, and more dams are planned as part of that

province's ambitious hydro development plans. Thus, even with part of the

Chishui included in the fish protection zone, disturbances elsewhere on the

river appear set to steamroll ahead.

 

------------------------------

 

*Footnote:*

 

1 Generating capacity of the Three Gorges Project Corp.'s planned dams on

the Jinsha River: Xiluodu, 12.6 million kilowatts; Xiangjiaba, 6 million kw;

Wudongde, 7.4 million kw; and Baihetan, 12.5 million kw.