China Activists Say Dam Will Kill Off Rare Fish

By JEREMY CHAN

BEIJING -- Environmental advocates are warning that a planned dam on China's Yangtze River could lead to the extinction of a number of rare fish species, casting a fresh spotlight on the potential environmental costs of the country's huge hydroelectric building program.
The proposed Xiaonanhai Dam would be located 30 kilometers upstream from the center of Chongqing, a rapidly expanding metropolis in southwestern China that hopes to use electricity from the dam to meet its growing energy needs. Chinese officials are currently reviewing the project, and critics believe that preliminary approval could come as soon as the end of this month, although the timing couldn't be confirmed.
Chinese and foreign scientists are concerned that the dam would encroach on the only rare-fish reserve on the Yangtze, China's longest river. The reserve is home to 180 different fish species, including the already endangered Chinese sturgeon and the finless porpoise. It covers roughly 400 kilometers on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, which has a greater concentration of biodiversity than the river's middle and lower regions.
A group of eight prominent Chinese scientists and environmental activists published an open letter last month urging the government to cancel the plans for Xiaonanhai. "The negative impacts of overdevelopment of hydropower would destroy the river's diverse aquatic life," the letter said.
International environmental groups also are urging reconsideration of the plan. "The iconic fish of the Yangtze are slipping away," said Brian Richter, director of the Global Freshwater Program at the Nature Conservancy, an advocacy group, based in Arlington, Va. He said the Xiaonanhai Dam could spell the end of "this treasure chest of aquatic diversity."
Central government offices and officials in the Chongqing municipal government, which is promoting the dam, didn't respond to requests for comment. In February, the Ministry of Agriculture held a meeting of experts to discuss the Xiaonanhai project, according to a report on a ministry Web site. The experts concluded that the project could have a significant impact on the habitat of the fish in the reserve area and recommended steps to safeguard the habitats but stopped short of calling for an end to the project, according to the report.
China is one of the world's biggest dam builders. The government maintains that hydroelectric power can reduce China's dependence on costly fuels like coal -- the main source of China's energy -- and cut down on emissions of global-warming gases and other pollutants.
The Yangtze is already home to the world's biggest dam, at Three Gorges, and researchers have said scores of other dams are planned for the river and its tributaries.
The Chinese authors of the open letter worry that the construction of the Xiaonanhai Dam would block migration routes, turn rapidly flowing water into stagnant ponds and endanger spawning grounds.
Of the 338 freshwater fish species found in the river, 162 are unique to the Yangtze. But the population of rare and unique fish species has been declining since the 1980s because of dam building, water pollution, overfishing and land reclamation.
"Too many dams have been planned on the upper regions of the Yangtze," said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing and one of the letter's signers.
Some critics also question the usefulness of Xiaonanhai's construction, with four other more massive dams having already been approved for construction in the Jinsha River upstream of the fish reserve.
Construction of the Xiaonanhai dam is projected to cost nearly 24 billion yuan ($3.51 billion) and take more than seven years to complete.—Sue Feng in Beijing and Bai Lin in Shanghai contributed to this article.Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A10