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China puts upper Yellow River dam plans on the fast track with feasibility study
- Heishanxia water conservancy project on the Gansu and Ningxia provincial border will include the 2.6 gigawatt Daliushu hydropower station
- Project is part of planned westward extension of China’s south-north water diversion network, which has sparked ecological and displacement concerns
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Frank Tangin Beijing
China has fast-tracked plans to build a big hydropower station on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, as part of an extension for a controversial project to divert river water from the wetter south to the country’s more arid northern regions.
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The Heishanxia water conservancy project, to be built at the border of the Gansu and Ningxia provinces in northern China, would include the 2.6 gigawatt Daliushu hydropower station, the latest dam on what China calls its “mother river”.
Local authorities say it will bring benefits such as stable water supply and blocking silt that might raise the river bed and increase flood risks, aside from boosting the electricity supply.
However, it also risks submerging 6,400 hectares (15,814 acres) of arable land and forcing out 73,000 local residents, all for an installed power generation capacity of about one-tenth that of the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze – China’s longest river spanning six provinces and a major domestic shipping route.
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