China - Renewable Energy

China is doing its bit to appear sustainable, they are currently operating 100,000 small Hydro Electrical Power (H.E.P) stations on rivers all over the country. Their greatest sustainable plant, the Three Gorges Dam, the largest Dam in the world and Chinas’ second largest construction, second to the great wall of china is due completion in 2009. It is estimated to generate 40% of Shanghais electricity using H.E.P from a one and a half mile damming system. The fundamental principal of sustainability and the use of renewable energy resources is that they “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations”. Therefore Chinas dam appears a failure.



Dai Qing is a leading Chinese journalist and has investigated in depth the potential for the dam. This potential though, he does not deem positive. He describes the dam as a “political project that exhibits the folly of socialist economics.” Dai believes that because of the nature of the government there is no platform on which one can express objection or protest. Although the Dam has generated 20,000 jobs it will cost $5Billion and for 1million people to move from their homes and water source as their villages will soon be flooded and polluted. Protesters and those who have been known to voice complaints has received jail sentences from 3-7 years. They were convicted of disturbing the ‘Three Gorges Resettlement’ and many of such arrests have been reported to have infringed on The Human Rights Act (2004).

Although China has acknowledged the benefits of using renewable energy their decisions have been made for economic benefits and positive political perception. In 2000 it was estimated that 23.4 billion tons of sewage and industrial waste were strewn into the Yangtze. A large majority of this is a result of the construction of the supposedly environmentally ‘friendly’ dam. It is impossible to compare the benefits of clean energy production against the land, lives, areas of cultural importance, river pollution and wildlife that are being sacrificed for this ‘sustainable energy’ dam. Sustainability should not have to make compromises though, especially, when they are at the expense of social and ecological factors, the factors that are intended to be the priority.