Eradicate poverty? Or keep river pollution free? It’s a tug-of-war between the environmentalist groups and China Academy of Sciences (CAS). Domestic and international environmentalist groups and also the China Youth Daily, the official newspaper of the Hu Jintao are up with all weapons against the construction of a series of hydropower stations on southwestern China’s Nu River. The CAS claims that the main aim of developing hydropower in the area would be to relieve the poverty of local communities. A CAS member promises that the detentions of reservoirs in the area would not damage virgin forest or the other world heritage sites in the region. Not convinced by this, and as a protest, an editorial in China Youth Daily states that it would rather trust the conclusions of environmental departments as for the impact of hydropower development on the environment. The State Environmental Protection Administration believes that the “blind development” of hydropower would seriously damage biodiversity in the region, and that the development of the Nu River in the interests of the “West-East Power Transmission Project” was not a proportionate decision.
Via: Interfax- China