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 While the 1,000-megawatt Xiaonanhai project appears scrapped,
experts said China's overall plan for dams was on course given
pressure to cut smog from coal-fired power plants.
Hydropower capacity is due to rise another 60 gigawatts (GW) in five
years as new projects get approved.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a document sent to
the Three Gorges Project Corporation and seen by Reuters that the
firm could not plan or build the project on the Jinsha river, the
upstream section of the Yangtze, in the southwest.
"In the last 10 years, two investigations have been carried out into
construction in precious and unique national protection zones for
fish in the lower reaches of the Jinsha river, and the structure and
function of the zones have already been heavily impacted," the
ministry said in the document.
"Your company as well as other units cannot plan or build the
Xiaonanhai hydropower plant," it said.
Officials at the Three Gorges Project Corporation were not available
for comment and phone calls went unanswered.
Environmentalists said the blocking of a project once championed by
the disgraced former Politburo member Bo Xilai reflected a tougher
stance on protecting rivers.
"We welcome the decision, particularly the recognition that
Xiaonanhai dam would have pushed the Yangtze fish reserve past the
ecological red line," said Grace Mang of the International Rivers
group.
Final approval for big hydropower plants goes to the State Council,
the cabinet, and hydropower advocates questioned the legal basis of
the ministry document, an environmental impact assessment of the
10-gigawatt (GW) Wudongde plant, also on the Jinsha river.
"The State Council last year approved an overall development plan
for the whole of the Yangtze river basin, and that plan cannot be
guaranteed without building Xiaonanhai and other projects," said
Zhang Boting, vice-secretary general of the China Hydropower
Society.
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"If this company doesn't build, then another might have to, because
this is a state planning requirement," he said.
China's dam program slowed after completion of the Three Gorges
Project, the world's biggest hydropower plant, about a decade ago,
with leaders concerned about human, financial and environmental
costs.
But with an ambitious nuclear-power program delayed, a greater
reliance on hydropower is seen as a good way to cut smog.
An aim to raise total hydropower capacity to 290 GW by the end of
2015 was met a year early, and according to a "strategic energy
action plan" last year, capacity will be raised to 350 GW by 2020.
"Emissions-cutting pressures are huge, coal consumption remains
really high and if we are to meet this important global
responsibility we must have hydropower," said Zhang.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
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