Thai company warned of more violence at Salween hydrodam site
September 07, 2007
A dam on the Salween being built by Sinohydro and EGAT, Thailand's national utility, is being pushed forward despite the deaths of two workers, protests, and anticipation of further violence from groups displaced to make way for the dam. [Full story]
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China shuts down 400 heavy polluting factories
September 05, 2007
The country's environmental watchdog has shut down 400 factories since the July launch of a national campaign to tackle water pollution and clean up industries along major waterways, including the Yellow and the Yangtze rivers. About 800 companies and projects have been suspended or fined due to environmental violations and tougher measures could be on the way. An amendment to a decade-old water pollution law will, if approved, remove a cap of RMB ¥1 million in fines for water polluters, allowing penalties of up to 30 percent of the direct economic losses caused by a pollution spill. [Full story]
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Europe sees high fences around China energy
September 05, 2007
A strong bias toward local producers and rigid price controls hinder European investors from making significant inroads into China's vast energy sector. [Full story]
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China plans $265 billion renewables spending
September 04, 2007
China plans to invest RMB ¥2 trillion (US$265 billion) in renewable energy by 2020, most of it corporate cash, to wean itself off polluting coal as it aims for cleaner growth. Over half the proposed investment will go into large dams. [Full story]
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China's renewable energy targets will include large-scale hydro - state planner
September 04, 2007
Large-scale hydropower development in the country's southwest will be integral to China's plans to lift the proportion of renewable energy in its total energy mix to 15% by 2020, said Chen Deming, vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Chen acknowledged that the rapid development of large-scale dams and reservoirs in the southwest has been met with intense criticism. "There are some international non-governmental organizations who have criticized our hydropower development," he conceded, "but according to our knowledge and experience, we feel that even though it can bring about some impact to the environment, the more important factor is its contribution to reducing energy, atmospheric and environmental pollution." [Full story]
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Crude oil pipeline leak pollutes entire city's water supply
September 03, 2007
Wangyao Reservoir, the main water supply for 2.15 million residents in Yan'an, was polluted by crude oil leaking from a broken pipeline on Saturday. The pipeline, which belongs to the Changqing Oil Field, was broken by a landslide. The leaked oil quickly spread over eight kilometres of the Xingzihe River. [Full story]
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China steps up 'green power' pressure
September 02, 2007
China’s State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) has stepped up the pressure on electricity suppliers to 'go green'. It will assume nationwide oversight over power companies that are required under the country’s renewable energy law to prioritize purchases of the maximum amount of ‘green’ electricity. According to a report in the Worldwatch Institute's China Watch series, a recent regulation from SERC details the authority and measures necessary for SERC to integrate renewable sources into power systems, including government subsidies in power pricing and exemption from competitive bidding. Under the ruling, renewable power includes energy generated from sources such as hydropower, wind power, biomass, solar power, tidal power, and geothermal energy. A supplementary regulation on renewable power pricing and cost sharing, authored by the National Development and Reform Committee, also requires power suppliers on the grid to purchase renewable electricity at either a government-fixed or a government-directed price. The additional cost of renewable energy is to be borne by electricity users. [Full story]
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Chinese geology experts question South-North Water Diversion Scheme's viability
August 31, 2007
Officially it’s the answer to northern China’s water crisis but senior Chinese geologists and experts are not confident that the central government’s plans for diverting water from the upper Yangtze into the parched Yellow River valley is worth the extraordinary risk and cost. [Full story]
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Facts on the South-North Water Diversion Scheme - Western Route
August 31, 2007
[Full story]
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Three Gorges fund could be diverted to massive South-North Water Transfer Scheme
August 31, 2007
Money raised to build China's Three Gorges dam could soon be diverted to a massive south-north water diversion scheme the building of which one senior official is calling "suicide." [Full story]
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Three gorges dam exacts its toll
August 29, 2007
The Three Gorges Dam project is suffering from unforeseen problems including landslides and water pollution, raising new doubts about a project that has come to symbolize the country's effort to control its environment. [Full story]
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Polluted China rivers threaten "sixth" of population
August 27, 2007
Polluters along two of China's main rivers (the Huai and the Liao) have defied a decade-old clean-up effort, leaving much of the water unfit to touch, let alone drink, and a risk to a sixth of the population, according to state media. Pollution on the Huai also threatens the massive South-North Water Transfer Project to draw water from the Yangtze River through the Huai basin to the country's parched north, Mao Rubai said. "Large volumes of untreated domestic effluent and industrial waste-water are dumped directly into the river," he said, threatening the quaility of water used for the South-North Water Transfer Project. [Full story]
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NYT: Choking on Growth
August 26, 2007
The New York Times website examines the human toll, global impact and political challenge of China's epic pollution crisis in a week-long series. [Full story]
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Alstom installs Three Gorges right-bank turbines
August 23, 2007
International Water Power & Dam Construction reports that Alstom has successfully installed three 700-MW turbine-generators on the right bank for its client, Yangtze Power Company. With 14 units already installed on the left bank, a total of 17 units have been brought online since 2003. The last nine units will be brought online in the coming months. [Full story]
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Voith Siemens wins Yangtze hydro contract
August 20, 2007
International Water Power & Dam Construction reports that Voith Siemens has won a US$120 million electro-mechanical equipment contract for the Jinping II hydro plant on the Yalong river, a major Yangtze tributary in western China. 4800-MW Jinping II is part of a major cascade development by Ertan Hydropower Development Corporation. [Full story]
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Chinese activists champion human rights in lead-up to Beijing Olympics
August 17, 2007
Probe International Fellow Dai Qing, one of 40 prominent Chinese activists and writers, called on Chinese and world leaders to respect human rights in the lead up to the Beijing 2008 Olympics on the eve of the one-year countdown to the Games. [Full story]
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Yangtze dolphin is no more
August 17, 2007
An international team of researchers announced the "functional extinction" of the the Yangtze river dolphin (or baiji). [Full story]
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US firm supplies state-of-the-art river monitoring equipment to Three Gorges project
August 13, 2007
Sutron Corporation is supplying state-of-the-art river monitoring equipment to the Three Gorges project, according to an August 13 release from the NASDAQ-listed company. [Full story]
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China withdraws credit from polluting companies
August 02, 2007
A blacklist of polluting companies, including two well known food processors, was issued by China's environmental watchdog yesterday, which denies bank loans in attempt to punish those that flout regulations. [Full story]
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Where will Beijing get its drinking water?
August 02, 2007
An article by Science Times reporter Yi Yongyong based on a recent talk by Chinese environmentalist Wang Jian takes us through some of the water supply problems facing Beijing. Starting from the city's pre-PRC history and moving through the half-century since, he brings us up to the present situation and speculates on the future. He focuses on two of the largest reservoirs that have until recently been among Beijing's primary sources. [Full story]
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