China: Dam building and deforestation, more than 'natural' causes behind the Gansu disaster

By Wang Zhicheng

More than 700 people are dead and another 1,042 are missing. In more than 40 years, 126,000 hectares of forests have disappeared. More than 150 dams were built on local rivers with no regards for the local hydro-geological structure. Although hydroelectric power development fills local public coffers, the authorities have no emergency plan in case of disasters.

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Once known as the ‘Shangri-La in Gansu’, [Zhouqu] and its immediate region have also suffered because of large-scale deforestation. Between the 1950s and the 1990s, the government tried to turn mountain slopes into cropland. This way, more than 126,000 hectares of forest were felled between 1952 and 1990, creating about 7,300 hectares of farmland. The net result has been to unhinge the area’s ecological balance.

More recently, environmental degradation has been accentuated by dam building. Between 2003 and 2007, the authorities built or are building 41 hydro-electrical power stations. An additional 12 are in the planning stage. All this was done, and is being done, to attract investments.

Unfortunately, most contractors involved in the dam projects failed to pay attention to the environment and see the importance of water and soil conservation.

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