Society

Power stations ordered to plug safety gaps

By Wang Qian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-15 09:35

BEIJING - Vice-Minister of Water Resources Hu Siyi ordered local governments to guarantee the safety of every hydropower station in China before the flood season begins in 2011.

Speaking at a conference on national water resources in Beijing on Tuesday, Hu said a long-term mechanism is needed to regulate the ongoing construction, supervision and management of hydropower stations, especially in rural areas.

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The Ministry of Water Resources inspected and carried out repairs on 5,200 hydropower stations around the country in a safety campaign over the past seven years. Most of them are small and medium-sized stations in rural areas.

Of these, there are 3,415 hydropower stations that never received approval on their design, construction or quality control, Tian Zhongxing, director of the national water and power supply bureau under the Ministry of Water Resources, told China Central Television on Thursday.

Another 1,785 hydropower stations, which received planning permission, are beset by problems that are having a detrimental effect on the environment, Tian said.

"These flawed hydropower stations threaten the ecology of their surrounding areas, which has the potential to trigger social conflict," he added.

Small and medium-sized hydropower stations have been found to be the most effective means of meeting the demand for electricity in rural areas of China.

Hydropower stations have been rapidly developed in rural areas over the past decade, but they lack management experience and quality controls.

According to statistics from the ministry, hydropower stations in rural areas of China provided electricity to more than 300 million people in 2009.

Outstanding problems remain from their disorderly development, which pose environmental and safety hazards that threaten public security, Jiao Yong, minister of water resources, said at a conference on water resources projects in March in Beijing.

In June 2010, the residents of nearly two dozen houses in Jinlong village, Guangdong province, were trapped by flooding that resulted from the illegal construction of a division channel from the nearby Jinlong hydropower station, Guangzhou Daily reported on Sept 16, 2010.

Officials of the local land resources bureau blamed the flooding on the station having never passed its quality inspection test, according to the paper.

Along with endangering the lives of those in nearby areas, the unqualified construction of power stations threatens the environment and economic development.

In 2009, environmentalists tried to halt the construction of the Xiaonanhai dam, a hydropower station located in the Yangtze River's conservation area.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environment Affairs in Beijing, said it is feared the dam will pose an environmental threat to aquatic life in the river, which can have economic consequences for those who gain their livelihoods from the river.