---On April 18th, Hu Siyi, Vice Minister
of Ministry of Water Resources, revealed that as the Chinese
Ministry of Water Resources has conducted the thorough
check and a concentrated treatment throughout the country
since 2003, some 3415 illegal rural hydropower stations
have been combed out in the whole country.
At the National Symposium on Investigation
and Rectification of Illegal Hydropower Stations, Mr.
Hu introduced that these illegal hydropower stations were
mainly concentrated in southern provinces. Classified
by the type of violations, the hydropower stations which
were approved against rules and regulations occupy 28.8%,
48.2% without approval of preliminary design, 47.6% without
supervision and 71.9% without acceptance before water
storage or after the project construction. In regard with
the investment channels, fund from private channel in
these hydropower stations accounts for 81.8%.
As introduced by Mr. Tian Zhongxing,
the director of Department of Rural Hydropower and Electrification
Development, MWR, China has exploitable rural hydropower
resources of 128 million kilowatts, ranking the first
in the world. By the end of 2006, China has built more
than 40,000 rural hydropower stations with the annual
power generation of over 150 billion kWh. Therefore, it
represents about one third of the total hydropower output
of the country, and has been the important component of
the state power supply. Half of the area, one-third of
the counties and a quarter of the population mainly depend
on the rural hydropower to supply the electricity across
the country.
"Due to unclear management responsibilities,
ineffective supervision, delayed plan, lack of corresponding
laws and regulations, there are some problems in the rapid
development of the rural hydropower." Mr. Hu Siyi
expressed that the main reasons for illegal hydropower
stations include: First, unclear and insufficient safety
supervision and management; Second, inadequate laws and
regulations related to rural hydropower development, unclear
construction procedures and discordant technical standards;
Third, the weak awareness of scientific development in
some places, too anxious to attract investment and intended
evasion of the basic construction procedures.
Mr., Hu Siyi emphasized: at present
nearly one-third of the illegal hydropower stations have
not been rectified. Therefore, all the regions of the
country shall have a timetable for a full completion of
the rectification task, putting forward rectification
deadline and implementing one by one. The rectification
must be completed for hydropower stations not in conformity
with planning and with serious security risks. Strive
to fully complete this task by the year 2010.(2008-04-25)
