ICOLD members - China

(1) the response to WCD'S report by CHINCOLD;
(2) paper by prof. Shen;
(3) paper by prof. Zheng;

The Response to WCD’s Report by CHINCOLD

February 15, 2001

The report, Dams and Development – A New Frame Work for Decision-Making, by WCD has made a great concern and response worldwide. The CHINCOLD, in general, agreed on the comments and response with the ICOLD, IHA, ICID and some other national commissions. Most of dams have realized their targets as planned and well operated. Dams have made an important and significant contribution to human development. China is the largest developing country. Based on its experiences, CHINCOLD would like to stress the following points .

1. The role played by dams in China during the past 50 years development is not able to be substituted

1) China is a country having suffered from frequent catastrophic flood and drought disasters. Over the past 2000 years, there have occurred totally 1092 times of flood disasters and 1056 times of drought calamities, being in average once either of flooding or drought every year. There were only 22 large dams with height over 15 meters, total hydropower installations of 360MW, annual power production of 1.2 TW.h, irrigation area of 16 million hectares and 42000 kilometer length of levees in China up to 1949. The people had suffered a great deal from flood and drought disasters and had a very poor life in the past time. For Example,

• Drought in 1876-1879 caused no food production in 1-million km² area of 9 provinces.
• Serious drought in north China in 1920 caused 20 -million victims and 500 -thousand dead.
• Drought in 1928 caused 120 -million victims in 13 provinces.
• In 1931, flood disaster of the Changjiang River caused more than 300 dike bursts, 145 -thousand dead and 28 -million victims.
• In 1933, flood disaster of the Yellow River affected an area of 11,000 km²,caused more than 50 dike bursts, 18 -thousand dead, and 3.64 -million victims.
• In 1935, flood disaster of the Yellow River caused 27 counties inundated and 3.4 -million victims.
• In 1935, flood disaster of the Changjiang River, which affected 6 provinces with the total area of 29 -thousand km², caused 140 -thousand dead and more than 10 -million victims.
• Serious drought in 1942-1943 in Henan province caused more than 1 -million dead.

2) A high priority has been given by Chinese government to harness rivers, take rational development plan and achieve remarkable progress on water resources after 1949. Many water conservancy works, flood control projects, reservoirs and dams, hydropower stations, irrigation and water supply systems have been build. For example,

(1) There are about 22000 large dams, 84000 reservoirs of different scale with total capacity of 492.4 billion cubic meters. There are 31742 sluice works. 260,000 kilometer length of levees and 7900 kilometers of tide dikes have been newly built and rehabilitated, the 34,500 square kilometers of flood detention area has a total storage capacity of 97.07 billion cubic meters.

(2) The Yellow River has smoothly run for 50 years. The disaster losses from floods and drought have been greatly reduced although there have been some heavy floods and severe drought during the past 50 year. The major floods happened in the Changjiang River, Nenjiang River, Songhuajiang River and Minjiang River in 1998. Total 1335 large- and medium-sized reservoirs nation-wide took part in the flood control and retained the flood water by 53.2 billion cubic meters, reduced or mitigated farmland flooding by 228 square kilometers and 27.37 millions of population, more than 200 cities were free from flooding. The direct economic benefit achieved by flood mitigation in 1998 was 700 billion-Yuan (RMB).

(3) A large number of hydropower stations have been built with a total installed capacity of 70 GW and annual power output of 210 TW.h in 1999, that ranked the second and third in the world. About 300 million people living in countryside rely on the small hydro and the rural electrification has been preliminarily achieved.

(4) Hydropower and coal-fired power are the main two energy resources in China (the normal energy sources: hydropower shares 50.3%, coal 44.2%, oil and gas 5.5% and very small amount of nuclear power). The potential economic and technical availability of hydropower installation is 296 GW (current 24% in total) and 1280 TW.h of annual power output. The energy output per capita is only 928kW.h, being only 1/6 to 1/10 as compared with developed countries. Up to now the wind power, solar energy, biogas and wave energy are only the auxiliary energy resources because of the limitation by geographic, economic and technical reasons. Therefore, the hydropower still remains one of the main energy resources in China in 21st Century.

(5) The thermal power is still the leading energy source in China as the hydropower production takes only 19% of the total energy output. The unit power consumption of coal is still too high causing severe pollution problems (acid rain takes 1/3, and emission of CO₂ takes the second place in the world). The hydropower, as a renewable and clean energy, will be developed continuously and plays an important role on the aspects of sustainable development of energy and environment security in China in 21st Century.

(6) The water resources in China are uneven distributed. The challenging problems in China are still the flood disaster, water shortage and water pollution. A quite number of dams and reservoirs with regulation ability on water and water transfer projects are necessary to be built to meet the water consumption demand by livelihood, agricultural, industrial, environmental and ecological protection.

Summing up the dam construction in China, there are no other alternatives to be used for ensuring the ecological and environmental conditions, effective utilization of limited water resources, food security, flood and drought control and disaster mitigation, water supply as well as providing cheap and clean energy.

2. Legislation and institution fit for dam construction

1) A series of legislation and policies for Chinese dam construction has been formulated through 50 years of practice. The important laws or regulations have to be examined and approved by the NPC for implemented. Main laws are Water Law, Land Law, the Law on Water and Soil Conservation, the Law for Flood Control, the Law for Water Pollution Control, Environmental Protection Law, Electricity Law, Law for Cultural Relics Preservations. Besides, there are many regulations to be followed, such as the Regulations for Land Requisition and Resettlement for Large & Medium Water and Hydropower Project Construction, the Regulation on Safety and Management of Dam and Reservoir, the Regulation on River Management, the Regulation for Flood Control, the Regulations for Resettlement of Three Gorges Project Construction, Implement Regulation on Law for Water and Soil Conservation, Implement Detail Guidelines on Law for Water Pollution Control. The Three Gorges Project is voted and approved by NPC also.

2) The constitutions and institutions related to the dam construction will be furthering improved in pace with the development of social and national economy. There are no problems that more efforts will be made on securing the right and living standard of reservoir resettlement, protecting culture relics, environmental and ecological improvement.

3. Comments on the WCD’s Report

1) The methods and examples quoted by WCD are not adequate. The methods have not been verified in practices. The report also overlooks the improvement of society and environment by dam construction.

2) The goals of dam construction in China are to achieve the maximum possible benefits by minimizing the negative effects on the social, environmental, ecological aspects and cultural relics through fully and rationally utilizing the nature resources. The different kinds of alternative schemes being possible to be substituted have to be carefully and thoroughly studied and screened by current regulations in order to attain a harmonious co-existence of mankind and nature. Those are not significantly different from the goals mentioned in the WCD’ Final Report. However, it is not rational and feasible for all countries to adopted the bottom-up decision making process suggested by WCD’s report. China adopts a scientific and democratic decision making process on the base of adequate feasibility study following laws and regulations.

3) In many aspects, the 26 guidelines proposed in the report for the planning and implementation of future dams don’t fully take into account the special conditions and the specific development phase of different countries. They are somewhat too idealistic. Therefore, it is unreasonable and unacceptable to require all countries and all international banking organizations to follow these guidelines. In fact, the principles of WCD would stop any dam construction in the future. It is inevitable for WCD to cause so many objections from the world, especially the developing countries.

4) The analyses on the alternative schemes in WCD’s report are too simple, considering the challenging situation to solve the urgent problems such as the water supply, food security, flood and drought control and power production in developing countries.

5) CHINCOLD considers that the policies and principles related to a country dam construction should be made according to its local conditions. It is not reasonable to force developing countries to accept all the guidelines proposed by WCD.

In the past 20 years, the World Bank has financed 16 dam projects in China. These projects are very successful and have made great contributions to the development of China and thus receiving high commendation of Chinese people.

Comments on WCD Final Report

Dr. SHEN Chonggang
Chinese National Committee on Large Dams
January 2001

In November 2000, WCD published its final report so-called 'Dams and Development' which was cooked up through more than two years' elaborate concoction. According to its own opinion, this report is of global, authoritative and political natures. But if taking perception into the report, it is only a self-proclamation, and at least WCD has a very narrow knowledge about China's dam construction experiences and actual ways to build dams. Since this report is full of subjective assumptions and one-sidedly need-based assessments, by no means it can be truly regarded as practical and realistic.

The report has put forward 8 conclusive points about the dam construction of the 20th century, which were drawn based on the analysis of 125 dams. But these dams only constitute about 0.28% of the total completed ones in the world, and most of them belong to old projects completed 30 years ago, so the samples can not be defined as representative. There is much difference concerning the benefits of dam construction. Some dams are for flood control purpose, but no severe flood occurs after their completion, and in this case, the benefits are not apparent. However, some dams did meet heavy flood shortly after their completion. For example, during the 1998 flood of Yangtze River basin, the newly built Geheyan dam successfully held the tributary flood, and this not only protected the lower reach of Qingjiang River, but also mitigated the flood in the main river, which has brought enormous benefits. So it is quite absurd to rate dams as non-beneficial in the flood control when floods do not appear.

Besides the reservoir impounding to provide sufficient water resource, accessory channel systems should also be set to guarantee the farm irrigation. Due to the relatively low prices of agricultural products, the price of the irrigation water, which normally embodies public welfare, can not be too high. This can play an important role in maintaining social stability and do not solely depend on the mechanism of market economy. Supposing a situation of millions of people falling in short of food supplies in a severe drought haphazard and the subsequently huge relief cost, the outcomes absolutely could not be evaluated by benefit.

Dams are used for power generation, which depends on the incoming water flow. In most cases, hydropower plants can fulfill their designing power generation tasks. Not only is the hydroelectricity a clean and sustainable power resource, but also it has a great advantage in the electric network regulation. So in many countries with inadequate hydropower resource, pumped storage power plants have had to be built to solve this problem. In the mean time, with the enlargement of the networks, the generation capacities of the hydropower plants have often been enhanced, reflecting an increasing demand for hydroelectricity.

As for the dam construction costs, they can normally be controlled within the budget under a strict and scientific management. In China, all the hydropower projects funded by the World Bank were under budget, and started operation ahead of the proposed time. These projects include Shuikou, Lubuge, Ertan and Xiaolangdi (under construction).

To the aspect of environmental and ecosystem protection, we don't deny that little attention was paid to the great influence brought to environment by reservoirs in the first half of the 20th century. But with the solicitudes and efforts of hydraulic engineers, after 1980 almost all the designs of large dams have taken careful considerations into the protection of environments and ecosystems, and corresponding measures have been adopted. In fact, the pollution of rivers occurred early together with the expanding of the social action ranges of the human beings, so it is not appropriate to attribute the damages simply to dam construction. Through the utmost efforts, satisfying accomplishments have been achieved in many occasions, and here it is unnecessary to list the verbose examples.

Another problem is about the emigration of the local residents. It is unavoidable for a reservoir or a dam to occupy some farming lands and forest regions, but the key point lies in the way to compensate the immigrants and the fact weather their living standards are improved after emigration. Actually, much emphasis has been given to this problem, especially after 1980s when many regulations have been drafted by the Chinese government to guarantee the living standards of the immigrants. Being offered favorable remuneration, local people were willing to emigrate so as to live better lives. For example, in the Three Gorges Project there were huge quantities of immigrants, but the emigration have been going on smoothly. The first reason is that the government had created settlement condition for the immigrants in the lower reach plain, and the second is closely related to the consciousness of the immigrants concerning this matter. Most local residents had it in mind that his/her emigration could ensure the safety of 20 people in the lower reach. This kind of highly appraised awareness could be found anywhere in the emigration area. Also, even death penalties were convicted to fight against the embezzlements and corruption among the personnel in charge of the emigration affair, which reflected the strong emphasis and determination of the government in dealing with this problem.

Now in worldwide scope, some organizations ignore the fact, blindly oppose the dam construction, and even instigate some people to demonstrate. We do not think they have no other hidden purposes. To think they clamor to stop dam construction and let the river flow freely when drinking reservoir water and eating vegetables, foods and fruits harvested from the lands irrigated by reservoir water, it is so ridiculous. Why not to discard their own reservoirs and irrigation systems in California to restore the original deserts and waste lands?

WCD's final report repeatedly mentioned its 'political nature', but this truly uncovered its ulterior motives. After their regulations for the natural rivers have been almost completed, the developed countries take their tough standing in maintaining the freely-flowing river, arbitrarily allowing no opposing opinions, and thus put shackles on the developing countries. Consequently, it will lead to an increasing difficulty to the exploitation and harness of water resources which needregulating due to the uneven distribution among different areas and periods.

It should be noted that dam construction is just a way through which to fulfill a goal, not a goal itself. It complies with the whole developing planning of the rivers which also make up an important component part of the entire economic developing planning of a country. Empirically, not every river needs a dam, and some rivers do not have such necessary exploitation conditions. In these cases, other alternatives have been adopted. The choice for dam construction is neither stereotyped nor like the WCD chairman's opinion that the engineers are intoxicated with self-satisfaction in building a dam, and it is totally based on the objective demand. WCD attempts to construct frameworks using vague principles and force every country to follow its rules, trying to override the responsibility of each government, and this will surely be a non-fruitful illusion.

What is more preposterous, these frameworks inevitably fall into the interference with the other countries' internal affairs and poorly founded criticisms to these countries' developing plans. However, these frameworks do not provide any concrete proposals, only relying on paper works.

With the increasing of the world population, the scarcity of water resources has become more obvious. As a result, the exploitation of rivers will inevitably focus on the water resources in the 21 th century, and on the other hand, to fully use the limited water resources, protection from water pollution must be also given considerable attention. So it is essential to actively store the rainfall and keep it clean and usable. These two objectives are the fundamentally starting points in adopting a series of measures. How to fully use the limited water resources thus to guarantee the water demand of cities, towns and farms is much more urgent now, and this is the reason that dams and reservoirs have been built to store surplus rain during wet season. One of the key problems in the Development of West China is 'water', and there no water means no anything. Economizing on water is important, but the exploitation of supplying resources should still be continued. It is a large project in fully using the water resources.

The authoritativeness of a work depends on its rich and accurate materials, careful analysis made on these materials and public acknowledgement and acceptation, and it should by no means be proclaimed as that by itself. So, WCD's report has no such authoritativeness. On the contrary, its opinions and reasons will not be consented by most engineers and politicians, and it can only act as the calumniation. Time will prove that these opinions will receive unanimous spurning from most people, especially those from developing countries. They have the right to develop their countries through their own ways.

In the 21th century and especially its first half, China, a developing country, will continue its step in the river regulation and build dams when necessary to solve the unequal distribution of water resources among different areas and periods. We can be sure that these dams will provide haphazard mitigation and benefit promotion incessantly and will get high eulogy from all the people.

Comments on WCD’s Final Report

updated on April 19th 2001
Zhang Jinsheng
Vice-president of CHINCOLD

The global debate about large dams is overwhelmingly complex. WCD with the support of World Bank and IUCN, collected about a 10 million $ dollar grant fund from 53 financial contributors to accomplish a two years mandate. The mission seeks to turn costly controversies into clear and productive consensus in the increasingly confrontational debate about the role of large dam. By November of last year WCD launched its final report "Dams and Development", and submitted the report to the world .

Unfortunately there was a strong response after WCD launched the final result. There is a substantial lack of consensus or compromise on some basic concepts between the counterparts .

We support Mr.C.V.J.VARMA as the President of ICOLD for sending an open letter to Prof. K.Asmal former Chairman of WCD, dated on November 30. We also appreciate that he collaborated with Prof.R..Lafitte, and Prof. B.Schultz on behalf of ICOLD, IHA, ICID, to declare their position officially to Mr.James D .Wolfensohn, President of World Bank Group, on December 28th, 2000.We are also welcome the major comment of ICOLD,IHA and ICID on the report of the WCD. dated on February 2001.

We don't like to express more conclusions that will overlap with VARMA's position. Our comment on WCD's final report corresponds to the basic condition of our country as follows:

The 20th Congress of the International Commission on Large Dams was successfully held in Beijing September 2000.Over 2000 Chinese and foreign expert were gathered. At the grand opening of the congress the vice premier Wen Jia Bao on behalf of the Government of China announced that" At present, China has the most large dams in the world and leads in many areas of dam building. Dam construction has played an important role in flood control, irrigation, water supply and power generation. ." "Therefore the Chinese Government will continue to give priority to the development of water recourses in the course of national economic development ...... to constantly raising the level of water resource development and dam construction."

More than 86,000 reservoirs of all size have been commissioned in China, Annual water supply capacity is now over 560 billion cubic metes. The world has an estimated 45.000 large (by ICOLD measures) dams over 15 meters high. China has about 23.000 large dams in operation.

By the end of 1999 the installed capacity for hydropower was over 72.9million KW. China's hydro-energy exploitable potential ranks first in the world. But its utilization ratio is still very low, because only 12% has been used (about 19% according to the capacity). China will secure sustainable utilization of hydro-energy. By the year 2010, following the completion of T.G .P, the installed capacity will reach 125 million KW, That may probably rank as the first in the world.

China's total annual storage of water resource is 2812 billion M3 but per capita holding is only 1/4 of the world's average. In addition, uneven time-space distribution of the resource has resulted in frequent flood and drought disasters.

Statistics show that since1949, the annual average drought affected area is more than 20million ha. Of these, 8 million ha were turned into real disaster areas.

In the past decade, the annual water shortage in national irrigation district was more than 30 billion cubic meters.

In 1998, an extreme flood disaster occurred in the Yangtze River basin, which inundated an area of 3.21x105 km2.and killed 1562 people. The direct economic losses exceed the total investment of Three Gorges Project. The floods in 1931 and 1935 inundated 3.4 and 1.5 million hectare of farmland. Besides, 145000 and 142000 people were killed. In 1954, 3.17 million hectare of farmland was inundated. Besides, 18.88 million people suffered from flood damage and more than 30,000 people were killed. In China dams forming reservoirs with the total storage of 460 billion M3, are associated with 0.26 million KM of dikes, which protect 400 million people.

There are a total of 4.6 million of various water supply works constructed across the country. The annual water supply has increased from 100 billion cubic meters before liberation to 580 million cubic meters, with an additional 210 million people receiving drinking water supplies. The farmland irrigation area has been increased from 16 million ha in 1949 to 53 million ha at present. Of these 33 million ha are farmland with high yield and steady production. At present China has solved the problem of feeding its population of 1.2 billion people, who account for 22% of the world total, using less than 10% of world cultivated land. Water conservancy works, including dam construction played a very important role.

China's total population will reach 1.6 billion in the middle of 21st century, the increment will be about 300~400 millions, therefore, per capita water resources and energy consumption will be further reduced, unless new dams and water works are constructed.

The total water demand in the middle of 21st century must be controlled within 800 billion cubic meters, i.e. increasing about 220 cubic meters over the present level.

Excess water available from ecological systems will be recycled after being purified in water treatment plants.

However, the present water conservancy measures are not compatible with the needs of the entire national economy and with social development. To make the necessary improvements will be an enormous task for China in this historical period. China's current water issues are mainly manifested in threats of floods and drought disasters, shortage of water resources and deterioration of the ecological environment, which also depends on water.

China is a developing country. Hence, the development of the national economy should proceed according to the principle of a sustainable, rapid and healthy strategy. From the point of view on economics, environmental and social aspect, consider the benefits, the options and optimization concerns about dams, including flood control, power production, irrigation, water supply, navigation, recreation, and environmental enhancement. Also, take into account procedures of evaluation and decision-making including cost and benefit analysis. These and other important issues such as dam safety and risk analysis should receive more attention.

According to this strategy, CHINA is speeding up development in the western region, including a policy of priority development of hydropower. China has stated to implement transmission of "power from west to east", and transferring "water from south to north".

We are implementing the principle of establishing the mechanism of market economic system in depth. Our job is to finalize comprehensive planning of river basins, and schedule the consequent process of dam cascade by sustainable development. Establish river basin/regional development corporations with multiple channel approaches to investment opportunities. Confirm the legal status of the dam project's owner. Above all, it should be realized that the role of dams is very important for the development of river basins.

As we know, water and energy are the non-fungible resources for the survival and development of human beings. These two key factors will constrain the economic development of China.

Mr. Veltrop has strongly supported, and has personally been involved with dam construction in China, especially the Ertan project where he made an excellent contribution. As an old friend, he visited China during May of last year, covering international travelling expenses himself. He presented to us WCD's China country review paper titled "Experience with Dams in Water And Energy Resource Development in The P.R.C." That was the final draft dated on 24, March, 2000, of a working paper prepared for WCD as part of its information gathering activities. The views and conclusions in the working paper are those of the authors and do not present the views of the Commission. We haven't made any comments on that draft. So far, we don't know of any domestic Chinese expert who intents to join the above work. Some of the information and data should be revised and enlarged. The Chinese Committee on Large Dams intents to prepare a report on the challenges faced by dams into 21st century, covering both learning from the past and looking forward to the future. That report will indicate our conclusions.

During the past decades, there have been 250-371 dams under construction annually, and it is estimated that China will continue to have a large number of dams under construction in the early part of the 21st century.

Since the construction of the Dayu water treatment scheme in China, there have been more than 4000 years of water resources development. Inevitably dams should be developed further into the future based on relevant advanced modern scientific methodologies and technology. Dam construction is a process for creation of hydraulic water retaining structures. But this is not the final goal. The role of dams is the essential foundation for infrastructure for the development of water and energy.

China is especially short of water and energy resources. Alternatives to energy supply exist, some times may be also for flood protection. But no substitute for water has been invented yet for matching irregular and not assured water flows. Also, a comprehensive alternative solution, covering the multiple purposes and benefits of a dam project, often does not exit. For example there does not exist any alternative solution to the dam of Three Gorges Project, to get rid of the threat from flood disaster for the vast region downstream of the dam site.

Dams are the treasures of human civilization, and we are confident that dams will continue to be one of the most effective ways to deal with serious issues of water and energy problems and flood disasters.

In general, the report of WCD focuses on negative performances of dams, intentionally assessing the negative aspect of large dam project with prejudices against the dam project all around the world. The report also recognizes "Dams have made an important and significant contribution to human development, and the benefit derived from dams have been considerable." Nevertheless, it does not include a detailed survey of the substantial benefits derived from dams. There is a tendency of avoiding many explicit figures for the benefit of dams. Only from pages 11 through 15 of the Final Report.

The explanation given on those pages is not sufficient. Some statements are based on inadequately researched data. These are unfair and not equitable for the assessment of the positive and negative performances of dams. It is essential that benefits of dam projects always be evaluated on the scale of micro-economy of the country beyond the local base.

Some principles in WCD's report, such as concern for the environment and the five core values were emphasized. These fit well with ICOLD's Position Paper on Dams and the Environment. But we feel that the frame-work of Decision-Making is difficult to implement. The report seems acceptable on many principles, but it fails to offer technical criteria and standards for the practical uses for different purposes and at different stages. Every country or region has its own characteristic features that can't be unified in an international code. Each county should obey existing laws, needs and its prevailing conditions. As those the report also has indicated.

No force can stop or prevent dam projects, which are so urgently needed in China, include the Three Gorges Project. But in some places WCD's report does not support the efforts of dam's developmental. On the contrary, the report will slow down the development of dams.

Many thanks to the World Bank, for having successfully supported China's dam construction, The contribution of the Lubuge, Shuikou, Ertan and Xiaolandi projects etc. are living evidence of the practical benefits of dams. We wish that the World Bank will continue to go ahead, and does not withdraw from the support of China's dam construction program. The stated mission of the World Bank includes: "to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting result" and "encouragement of the development of productive facilities and resources in less developed countries." The WCD has disappeared. Prof. Asmal already has resigned from the position of chairman, but the World Bank is still very strong, We are waiting the response from Mr.Wolfensohn, he was one of the two key initiators of WCD.

We also thank WCD for setting before us the challenging task to develop perfect dam projects of very high quality. And WCD requires us further to work hard to facilitate effective cooperation between the technical professional and others with a legitimate interest in a project.