On the edge of Asia’s longest river

EARTH-SHATTERING CHANGES: PROTECTING YANGTZE HAS BECOME A PRIORITY FOR CHINA

R1.2 trillion allocated since 2011 to alleviate dam’s impacts on villages like Muhe.

The 2 000 residents of Muhe, whose village was moved to higher ground a decade ago to escape the rising Yangtze River, have tried to make the most of their remaining land by planting orchards of oranges and persimmons along its banks.

With just 110 hectares on the edge of Asia’s longest river, Muhe lost half its territory to make way for the colossal Three Gorges Project, a 185m dam and 660km reservoir designed to control flooding, aid navigation and generate electricity.

Beijing has allocated more than 600 billion yuan (about R1.2 trillion) since 2011 to alleviate the dam’s long-term impacts on villages like Muhe and bring the region’s deteriorating environment under “effective control”.

But many problems are unresolved, and the government has promised to spend another 600 billion yuan by 2025, said Xie Deti, a member of the Chongqing delegation of the National People’s Congress who lobbied the government to release more funds in March.

Protecting the Yangtze has become a priority for China after President Xi Jinping promised to end big and “destructive” development along the river, which stretches 6 000km from Tibet to Shanghai, supplies water to 400 million people and irrigates a quarter of the country’s arable land.

Since Xi’s orders in 2016, local governments have dismantled dams, dredged plastic junk, relocated factories, banned waste discharge and restricted farming and construction.

“You can say we have undergone earth-shattering changes, especially when it comes to increasing our awareness of environmental protection,” said Liu Jiaqi, Communist Party secretary in Muhe.

But the region has been unable to evade the earth-shattering impact of the dam itself, which sits near two fault lines and has been blamed for a surge in earthquakes and the fragmentation of ecosystems, among myriad other problems.

China’s environment ministry said the region saw as many as 776 earthquakes in 2017, up 60% compared with a year earlier, with the highest magnitude at five.

The total number has risen significantly since the project began, with one study from the China Earthquake Administration showing a 30-fold increase between 2003 and 2009, when the reservoir was filled. –

Pictures: Reuters FLOATING. A container ship travels on the Yangtze River in the Three Gorges Reservoir region in Chongqing, China.

SERENE. Preserving the legacy of the Three Gorges Dam at the Yangtze River in China is important.