Environmental activists say a dam that has been proposed to tackle a severe water shortage in China's largest freshwater lake, which supplies drinking water to millions of people, will exacerbate droughts and deprive migratory birds of their habitat.
Jiangxi authorities said their proposal for a new dam to alleviate the prolonged dry spell had been submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission and had passed the environmental assessment process, the Guangzhou Daily reported yesterday.
Water levels in Poyang Lake dropped to a six-decade low of eight metres last month, with more than 90 per cent of the lake reduced to a plain of cracked mud, and 120,000 residents of Duchang county, downstream, running short of drinking water.
Fisherman Yuan Guohua told the newspaper that he was not able to catch fish in the lake between November and April every year because of the low water levels, and that fish could not spawn or find sufficient food. Official data suggests some 100,000 fishermen at Poyang Lake earned 60 per cent less last year because of the drought.
Water authorities said the ongoing drought, which began last summer, would become the norm in the future and that only a new dam could solve the water crisis.
But environmental activist Wang Yongchen said the dam would threaten Poyang Lake's eco-system and worsen the drought by cutting the link with its water source, the Yangtze River.