U.S. Water News Online
SHANGHAI, China -- The Chinese government has ordered a halt to construction at 30 big construction projects, including two at the massive Three Gorges Dam, due to alleged violations of environmental protection regulations and other concerns.
Twenty-six of the projects are power plants being planned in 12 different provinces, part of a rush to boost the nation's generating capacity amid severe electricity shortages, many of them expansions of existing coal-fired plants.
But others are new projects. One is a cardboard factory. Two are roads, including a section of a highway meant to stretch all the way from Tibet in the far southwest to China's northeastern border with North Korea.
Many of the projects had not complied with requirements for environmental impact assessments or other authorizations, the State Environmental Protection Administration said on its Web site in ordering a work stoppage.
The administration official who announced the decision said some projects might be allowed to resume but that others would be canceled.
Late last year, the government said it was stepping up controls on investment in power plants, saying many were being launched without legal approvals. It estimated the capacity of unauthorized power plants under construction at 120,000 megawatts, or about 30 times current national generating capacity.
Three of the largest projects stopped are under the aegis of the Three Gorges Project Development Corp., the company responsible for constructing the Three Gorges Dam along the Yangtze River.
Two are auxiliary power facilities connected with the dam, the world's largest hydropower project, while the third, on the Jinshajiang River, was part of a massive plan to develop the hydropower resources of the upper Yangtze.
Known as the Xiluodu Dam, the Jinshajiang project is part of what is being billed by China as a "second Three Gorges."
It was unclear if the suspension of construction pending approval of the Jinshajiang project's paperwork would deter plans for Xiluodu.
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