Originally published in the Swedish Ordfront Magasin, this article was translated and posted by Three Gorges Probe:
The Nu River valley contains representatives of 25 per cent of the world’s animal species, and more than half of China’s, including endangered species such as the snow leopard and the red panda. This stretch of the river runs parallel to the Lancang (Mekong) and Jinsha (Yangtze) rivers. The nature here is so exceptional that UNESCO has put the Three Parallel Rivers on the UN world heritage list.
But with cascades of dams planned for all three rivers, the dramatic canyons are destined to become power generators for the rich east coast under China’s program aimed at sending electricity from the west to the east. The Huadian power company is banking on the Nu River project to produce more electricity than the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River.
The biggest dam in the Nu River series is planned for the nature conservation area of Maji. Engineers we meet from the drilling teams and an official working with the project tell us that the dam will be 300 metres high, which would make it one of the tallest in the world. It would drown the valley’s old growth forest, and turn the river into a giant bathtub. [Full text]
