China has demolished 300 dams and shut down most of the small hydropower stations on a major tributary of the upper Yangtze River to safeguard fish populations as part of an effort to restore the ecology of Asia’s longest waterway.
According to a report by the state news agency Xinhua on Monday, 300 of the 357 dams on Chishui He – also known as the Red River – had been dismantled by the end of December 2024. In addition, 342 out of 373 small hydropower stations have been decommissioned, enabling many rare fish species to resume their natural reproductive cycles, the Xinhua report said.
The Red River flows for more than 400km (249 miles) through the southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. It is regarded by ecologists as the last refuge for rare and endemic fish species in the Yangtze’s upper reaches.
Over the decades, water flows have been increasingly blocked by the dense network of hydropower stations and dams, restricting water volumes downstream and occasionally even causing some sections to dry up entirely.
This has drastically reduced the amount of suitable habitat and spawning grounds. The stations also blocked the routes of migratory fish species between breeding grounds and non-breeding areas.
Isn’t China going to build the world’s largest hydroelectric dam in Tibet that will displace hundreds of millions of South Asians who depend on the river for clean water?
That isn’t how dams work.
What exactly do you think I’m asking about here?
A proposed dam literally the size of the entire subcontinent?
If you’re making a joke I’m sorry I’m just drunk and missing it.
Why would a dam displace hundreds of millions of people?
Water still passes through them even if it’s slightly reduced while they fill. It’s not like the rivers in India suddenly dry up.
Dams can have downstream environmental impacts, among them are changes in water flow and water quality from the wild fluctuations in temperature. The river in question is one of the 10 largest in the world and it feeds into an even larger system
This dam has been a topic I’ve heard discussed a few times among people I know and I tend to feel like an idiot for not having a response because this does sound like a pretty big deal.
It could just be scare mongering from rightists I’m hearing. Maybe China has somehow found an appropriate environmental management plan. My OP sounded confrontational but I’m honestly concerned by this and I was hoping someone with more knowledge of the Chinese side of thinking give me some insight.
Edit: I almost forgot, I’m literally in a thread celebrating the destruction of dams by China for good reason.
the raised water levels as a result of the dam is what necessitates displacement. but it wouldnt be hundreds of millions. Three Gorges resulted in 1+ million ppl being resettled
The Yangtze river spans almost entirely in China. China has the logistical capacity to make all of the necessary efforts for environmental impact mitigation and the prevention of the displacement people. This number would be much worse in a different country.
This new dam spans several different countries. I dunno, seems pretty bad on the surface
China would be building the dam within China, right? So the raised water level doesn’t impact India (and India might have a slightly lower water level and the other issues expressed, but those aren’t nearly as extreme effects as far as human settlement goes). It looks like the river between the origin point and the station is located entirely in Tibet (almost the whole length of it that is in Tibet, the station is right near where it crosses the border to India).
I think some of China’s environmental planning has been bad or negligent or short-sighted or whatever (e.g. encroaching on natural deserts and not just the ones they caused), but based on the given information, this seems like a manageable problem at worst.
From what I remember reading in the past, the rivers on the Indian side always get flooded and destroy villages every year so lower flow might be good for them but maybe the southern most states are affected? (not completely sure but that is how I remember it)
Hundreds of millions certainly seems like a stretch but dams displace people when there’s suddenly a 300’ lake in valleys where people lived.
Not sure of the specifics of this project but it’s one of the major drawbacks of large scale hydro, it was a big problem with the TVA dams in America. Old crow medicine show has a song about it called “half mile down”.
https://youtu.be/4E_AjWGsQJ0
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Obviously the bot won’t reply to this but is there an easy way to post one of those links in the first place?
You can just replace the domain name “youtube.com” with one of those domains. They all use the same format as the official youtube URLs.
Thanks
I’m clueless, tell me more?
They’re probably referring to the Medog Hydropower Station, which has attracted a lot of attention because the river flows into India, which means that there are international consequences for the development. The Chinese gov has done their usual above-market compensation of people affected by plans, but it has nevertheless attracted protests from the affected population. There are also environmental concerns, prompted by the massive potential impact of the build, which will have three times the generative capacity of the Three Gorges Dam.
Personally I’m inclined to think that the international outrage is overblown as usual with China, and that the dam will bring far more good than bad.
I hope that it’s just the usual China scare I hear from people but
ie far more good for people I care about than those I kind of don’t
Edit:
This is what I’m interested in. Do you have any sources on this?
This river flows through Bhutan, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh, and merges with the Ganges.
Looking closer into this, I found some they said/but THEY said discourse going on in the UN. The UN claims that locals were not adequately warned or given democratic say in the dam’s construction, but the Chinese UN office responded by saying that they did. Neither letter cites a source for their claims.
Here’s an interesting paper on how China handles dam resettlement, especially since 2006 when it seems the government decided that their historical policies had been inadequate and changed how they did it. In specific they created a fund - established by an about 1% tax on electricity from hydroelectric dams - which was then used to make improvements for resettled rural communities (urban resettlers were left to the already-established urban welfare policies).
It sounds to me like other Chinese poverty-alleviation programs - a little cash (I don’t know how far 90 USD goes in rural China but it doesn’t seem like much) but mostly being focused on infrastructure improvements and connection to the national economy.
(I also saw a story in a state paper where a Tibetan talked about how great his two story government-issued house is, but it seems this story is talking about a different anti poverty program and the propaganda is a little heavy-handed.)
Thanks for the reply, I’m going to check out your links in a bit
Thank u I just learned I don’t know shit about water lmao