China’s Grand Canyon: no more small hydropower plants for country’s last wild river in scenic Yunnan
But Nu River’s fate still unclear as officials refuse to be drawn on revived plans to build dams on the waterway’s upper reaches
No new small-scale hydropower plants will be built on the Nu River to help restore the environment, Yunnan officials gathering in Beijing have said, with the provincial party boss even talking about turning it into “China’s Grand Canyon”.
But fate of the country’s last free-flowing river is still unclear as the officials remained tight-lipped on whether they would go ahead with plans to build a series of dams on the upper reaches of the Nu, known as the Salween River outside China and protected as a Unesco World Heritage site.
READ MORE: Ban lifted on controversial Nu River dam projects
Yunnan party boss Li Jiheng said last week on the sidelines of the national “Two Sessions” that the provincial government had decided to stop developing “small mines” and “small hydropower projects” to help restore vegetation on river banks.
“The Nu River will become a world-level tourism destination in five to 10 years. It will succeed, even surpass the Grand Canyon in the United States,” China National Radio quoted Li as saying.
The provincial decision to develop a national park along the Nu River canyon began to emerge late last year, exciting some environmentalists who have called for scrapping plans to dam the river.
But they were not so sure now after Yunnan officials remained silent on mega dams along the Nu in regions prone to earthquakes. The plans were shelved in 2005 by then premier Wen Jiabao on environmental and safety concerns, but were revived in 2013.