VULNERABLE VALLEYS: The photo shows the stretch of Jinshajiang River where it runs parallel to Lancangjiang and Nujiang rivers. The construction of hydropower plants around this area has stirred controversy due to the potential damage to the local environment (JIANG ENYU)

While hydropower is usually regarded as a safe and clean alternative energy source, China's top environmental regulator temporarily reined in two such projects that it said were set to cause part of the Yangtze River in Yunnan Province undue harm.

On June 11, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) announced it was suspending its approval of construction applications for China Huaneng Group and China Huadian Corp. as punishment for the two power giants' illegal construction in January of two cofferdams on the Jinshajiang River, around the upper reaches of the Yangtze. The cofferdams, large watertight structures used for underwater construction, were put in place for the initial building phase of the hydropower facilities. However, neither cofferdam had received prior approval through the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process, as regulated by the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment. The two projects were expected to cost almost 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion).

MEP spokesman Tao Detian said on June 11 that the punishment meted out to the companies should also serve as a warning to all others invested in high-pollution, energy-intensive or resource-mining projects, that they should take responsibility to protect the environment and fulfill their corporate social responsibility.

The Law on Environmental Impact Assessment, which came into effect in 2003, requires every new construction project to submit an EIA report that must be approved by environmental authorities before construction starts. It is considered groundbreaking for granting environmental protection authorities the power to halt construction projects that have the potential to damage ecology.

Though the Central Government encourages the development of renewable energy projects, including hydropower, plans should not overwhelm local ecosystems or allow rivers to grow overcrowded with hydropower dams, said a representative from MEP's EIA department. The department reported that over 75 percent of China's hydropower is in the southwest, an area that holds the country's richest biodiversity and most vulnerable ecosystems. It is also the most prone to geological disasters. The representative said projects undertaken without EIA approval tend to inflict irreversible damage on the local environment.

The ministry released a notice that it had also suspended all hydropower project assessments along the middle reaches of the Jinshajiang River from June 11 to protect the local environment. The two suspended hydropower plants are just downstream from an area where China's three major rivers—the Nujiang, the Lancangjiang and the Jinshajiang—run parallel to each other for some 170 km. This region, covering 1.7 million hectares, was included in the World Heritage List as a natural site of international importance by the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2003 for its unique, pristine landscape and wildlife.

Since 2004, environmental regulators and NGOs have been fighting against power companies' plans to build hydropower plants near the world heritage site. Local governments, though, often say new power facilities are essential to generate income for locals and support the projects.

Between 2005 and 2007, MEP, then called the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), launched annual "green storms" of environmental inspections, publicizing the country's major violators of environmental laws and issuing fines and production suspensions. During the 2007 "green storm," the SEPA instituted a new punishment for cities and companies with serious violations—no new project would be approved until old problems were fixed.

With the government's 4-trillion-yuan ($586 billion) economic stimulus plan, which includes myriad construction projects, MEP has planned a new round of inspections starting in July on construction that began after July 2008. These projects will be appraised based on their EIAs and how well companies implement changes requested by regulators. The ministry will also rate projects on the design, installation and operation of their pollution-prevention facilities.

The MEP said its environmental bar is not bent to favor economics over environmental protection. Between November 2008 and May 2009, MEP suspended or rejected 29 new projects, representing lost or delayed investment of 146.7 billion yuan ($21.6 billion).

MEP's upcoming national inspection campaign will be its first "green storm" since being upgraded to a ministry in March 2008. Niu Wenyuan, a Chinese Academy of Sciences research fellow on sustainable development, told Beijing Business Today that he expects this round to be more significant than previous ones because MEP sent a message to local governments and businesses that the Central Government would not relax environmental supervision in pursuit of economic growth, even amid the global financial crisis.

While encouraged by the news of upcoming inspections, some environmental NGOs are unsatisfied with MEP's policy of accelerating approval of some stimulus plan projects based on people's livelihood, infrastructure, environmental improvement and post-disaster reconstruction. "We want to know how privileged projects are selected and how the procedures are shortened," said Li Bo, Director of environmental NGO Friends of Nature.