Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Law stands between SA and cheap solar energy

http://www.iol.co.za/business/law-stands-between-sa-and-cheap-solar-energy-1.1371517#.UD6ZT0RPA7B


Law stands between SA and cheap solar energy

August 29 2012

by Londiwe Buthelezi

The price of energy from solar photovoltaic (PV) cells has fallen 10
percent annually and will be at grid parity with Eskom by 2015. With
Eskom�s tariff set to double to 97.51c a kilowatt-hour by 2017, PV
energy is expected to be cheaper than Eskom�s coal-generated
electricity by 2017.

This is according to calculations by David Lipschitz, an energy expert
at energy company My Power Station.

PV energy is created by panels using solar radiation.

Lipschitz said at the Solar Power Africa conference in Cape Town
yesterday that the cost of PV energy was sliding on excess supply of
panels. �We could reach grid parity with Eskom even before [2015].�

However, this excess supply was not making its way to the national
grid because electricity regulations in the country prevented those
independent power producers (IPPs) not taking part in government
procurement programmes from connecting to the grid.

Rules governing the country�s electricity industry include the 1998
white paper on energy, the Electricity Regulation Act and its two
amendments, as well as the Independent Systems Market Operator Bill.

Doug Kuni, the managing director of the SA Independent Power Producers
Association, said the current laws caused uncertainty as they
contradicted each other and this uncertainty jeopardised the financing
of projects.

For instance, while the Electricity Regulation Act of 2006 allowed a
willing-buyer willing-seller principle for electricity, the first
amendment to the act excluded it. The latter also barred independent
producers from selling power from private installations without
ministerial approval.

�We need to make the environment easy for investors to come and we
need certainty to achieve that,� Kuni said.

Kuni said because so much uncertainty had been introduced, the only
IPPs left in the market would be those that were part of the
government�s procurement programmes.

In the second window of the renewable energy procurement plan, the
Department of Energy received 79 bids, of which 51 met the
qualification criteria. But due to the limited capacity provided for
this window, only 19 bid proposals were selected as preferred bidders.

Kuni said this was a clear indication that fewer IPPs could take part
in the government�s procurement programmes and therefore they wanted
to be able to produce and sell the electricity privately, allowing
customers a choice in supply.

With South Africa�s power deficit estimated at between 5 gigawatts and
30 gigawatts a year, the IPPs said the government should allow
independent players to cover this shortage because it was causing
massive damage to the economy.

The challenges faced by local businesses, where they had to shut
operations when Eskom was battling with household demand, were
unnecessary and it was the reason the country was growing at a slower
pace than other African countries.

�I don�t see what�s stopping the government and policymakers from
saying �we�ll open the [bidding] windows until we�ve met the deficit
when there are willing IPPs�,� said Kuni.

Thembakazi Mali, a clean energy solutions manager at the SA National
Energy Development Institute, said it would soon be cheaper to develop
energy using solar radiation than fossil fuels because of Africa�s sun
exposure. If the continent took full advantage of this available
resource, it could generate 80 times more energy than it needed.

But she said the market needed certainty on what was going to happen
after window 5 of the renewable energy procurement programme for
multinational companies to invest in local manufacturing.
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

West seti hydro power: IB, Chinese firm put stamps on revised MoU

West seti hydro power: IB, Chinese firm put stamps on revised MoU
Ekantipur Report
August 28 2012

http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/08/28/headlines/West-seti-hydro-power-IB-Chinese-firm-put-stamps-on-revised-MoU/359392/

Six months after signing an initial agreement, the Investment Board (IB)
and CWE Investments, a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation
(CTGC), on Monday signed a revised memorandum of understanding (MoU) for
the development of the 750-MW West Seti Hydro Power Project and the
Transmission Project.

With the signing of an agreement, decks have been cleared for the
development of the $2 billion (Rs 180 billion) projects. The Cabinet
meeting on Monday endorsed the MoU, according to PMO sources.

The agreement follows discussions held in Beijing in the second week of
August between top government officials and the CTGC, where the Chinese
company agreed to revise the MoU signed on February 29.

The agreement has ensured 10 percent equity to the local population in
the Far West, allocation of 150 MW of electricity from the project to
the region and multipurpose benefits from the project to the maximum
extent economically possible. Both the parties�the IB and the CWE�also
agreed to synchronize the completion of the transmission line project
with the completion of the West Seti hydro power plant.

IB CEO Radhesh Pant said the agreement was signed in line with the
suggestions put forth by the Natural Resources and Means Committee
(NRMC) of the dissolved parliament on the initial MoU between the Energy
Ministry and the then China Three Gorges International (now CWE
Investment Company).

"This MoU signing has put transparency and national interest on the
top,"said Pant.

The NRMC had in March suggested making the project a multipurpose one by
giving 10 percent stake to the people of the Far West and extracting
maximum benefits for the country.

Both the parties have jointly agreed to update the work plan and put
into place contracting terms which will help avoid cost overruns and
ensure timely completion of the project. The project is expected to be
completed by 2020.

According to the IB, the CWE has offered to provide help to secure
financial closure on the transmission line project. Similarly, the IB
will assist the Chinese company in the implementation of the project,
which includes government approval, provision of all available past
studies for the project, land acquisition, resettlement and
environmental impact assessments.

The agreement has also explored new possibilities of developing an
industrial hub in the Far West with technical and financial assistance
from CWE's holding company, China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC). The
project will supply 150 MW of electricity to this industrial hub.

"CTGC will either develop the hub on its own or as a joint venture with
the Nepali private sector, be it financially or technically,"Pant said.
An IB source said that a technical team from the CWE will arrive in
Nepal to begin further technical study.

The much-talked-about hydro project had been given a second lease of
life when the government and the Chinese company signed an MoU on
February 29. The project was earlier stalled for 17 long years as its
licence holder, the West Seti Hydropower Company Limited failed to
garner financial resources for its construction.
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China's South-North water transfer is "irrational"

China's South-North water transfer is "irrational"
By Tom Levitt
chinadialogue
August 27, 2012

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/5128-China-s-South-North-water-transfer-is-irrational-

Ruth Matthews, of the Water Footprint Network, tells Tom Levitt how food
has come to dominate our water use and why China may need to re-think
its South-North water transfer project.

See also: Water transfer projects "essential" says Chinese scientist
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/5133-Water-transfer-projects-essential-says-Chinese-scientist


Tom Levitt: What do you mean by our water footprint?

Ruth Matthews: A water footprint generally breaks down into three
components. The green water footprint is the water that is used by
plants from rainfall that has not run-off the soil and is taken up by
crops. The blue water footprint is water that has been withdrawn from
surface or groundwater and used in industry or agriculture. The grey
water footprint is the amount of water necessary to dilute polluted
water to meet water-quality standards.

TL: Which sector has the highest water footprint?

RM: Agriculture has the highest water footprint, accounting for 92% of
the blue water footprint. You might have heard figures of 70% to 72% for
agricultural withdrawals of water, but what we're looking at is the
water that is actually consumed and including green water footprint,
which explains why agriculture uses up more than 90% of the water
footprint of humanity.

Industry may withdraw a significant amount of water but a good
proportion of that is not evaporated or incorporated into the product
and is just returned to the source. For example, power-generation
stations use cooling water but that water is not lost or consumed.
Whereas water taken up by plants and evaporated or incorporated into,
for example, a juicy watermelon, is now unavailable for other uses.

TL: Can you explain the problem of meat and its high water footprint?

The Water Footprint Network estimate that the average water footprint
per calorie for beef is 20 times larger than for cereals and starchy
roots. With the biggest contribution coming from growing their feed. In
the US, for example, 68% of the grains produced are used for animal feed.

RM: There has been a study done, specifically in China, looking at how
as the economic wealth of people grows, the consumption of meat is
rising even more quickly. What that means is there is more pressure to
either produce internally or to import meat products. Meat is a very
high consumer of water, especially if you consider what is going into
the feed. In some cases that feed is natural grassland and rainfed so
the amount of water that is being put into it is not necessarily having
an impact on the blue water resources. But if we are using that rainfall
to grow soybeans to be eaten by cows to create beef, then we are getting
less protein out of that rainfall than if we grew soybeans that were
then eaten directly for their protein source. We are creating an
additional food inefficiency in our food system.

TL: How are water scarcity issues likely to impact on us?

RM: The reality is that developed countries significantly externalise
their water footprint. For example 42% of Europe's water footprint is
overseas. In some European countries the figure is even higher. What
that means is that there is a relationship between the citizens of the
EU and river basins around the world. 

As a country looks at how it
manages its own water resources, you could suggest that it has the same
responsibility to help the management of water resources in other river
basins and meet those high standards of protection. In developing
countries where there is less strict regulation, less capacity for
monitoring and enforcement of those regulations the agriculture is done
in such a way that there isn't much protection for water.

Countries like China and the US are in an interesting situation as they
have a significant amount of natural resources themselves because they
are such large countries. The amount of water the US imports and exports
is fairly close, so it is putting a burden on other countries but is
also relieving the burden because it is exporting goods, such as
wheat.

TL: What are your views on China's water footprint?

RM: What's interesting in China is that for various reasons, including
political, they have developed a lot of the agriculture in the north
where it's relatively water scarce. Within the country there is now a
virtual water trade from the north to the south, which is fairly water
rich. They are overtaxing water resources in the water-scarce north to
transfer food to the water-rich south.

And now they are looking at doing a massive water transfer from the
south to the north to help support Beijing's water and also to provide
water to agriculture that is in the north. From an economic and
environmental sense it's irrational. It doesn't make sense to push your
agriculture in the north when you've got a lot of water in the south but
this is how the situation is there now.

As China's population grows they are looking at more dependency on
external water resources. So as well as looking at their internal water
footprint, they have an opportunity to either take the proactive step of
helping those countries where they are reaching out to use water
resources in a sustainable and equitable way or instead contribute to
the continual degradation of the river and groundwater ecosystems.
See: Water transfer projects "essential" says Chinese scientist

TL: What can we learn from water footprints?

RM: One of the things we can do with our water footprint assessments is
to understand how water is being used within individual river basins and
how that relates to the amount of water that is available and the amount
that needs to stay in the river or aquifer to sustain biodiversity,
ecosystem services and subsistence uses of water. What we see is that in
certain times of the year in many river basins, because the amount of
water that is available is less than is being used for agriculture and
other uses, you see high water scarcity.

One of the things we can do to improve food security is to really make
the most and smartest use of green water resources. We can take some of
the pressure off our blue water sources – lakes, river and aquifers – by
increasing the efficiency of our use of rainfall and so reduce the green
water footprint. This means that we are producing more food with less
rainfall and by doing that you can also reduce the amount that you are
dependent on those blue water resources.

If you look at the amount of green and blue water footprints needed for
growing cotton in places all over the world what you see is that the
countries around the Aral Sea in general require a much higher blue
water footprint than other places because there is so little rain. The
result has been the virtual disappearance of the Aral Sea and loss of
fisheries from a massive growth in irrigated agriculture. So if you are
going to be growing a very water thirsty crop, which cotton is, a really
smart thing to do is to grow it in places where there is a significant
amount of rainfall - reducing your reliance on blue water resources to
the smallest amount possible.

TL: What are the best solutions to reducing our water footprint?

RM: For the private sector it is for there to be accountability in
supply chains. So if a company like Unilever is selling all different
types of products, they are not just looking at their operational
footprint but also the water footprint in their supply chain, making
sure that they are taking action to improve the sustainability and
equitability of that footprint. In the public sector, it would be for
the government to bring water footprint accounting into the mix of what
they track, in the same way as they record GDP and trade exports and
imports.

Water footprint accounting can help them understand how water is used
within the country – the sectors using it and the products produced as
well as their economic value. Furthermore, how much water they are
importing through virtual water flows and the value of that and how they
are connected to water scarcity and pollution hotspots both within the
country and externally.


Tom Levitt is managing editor at chinadialogue

Homepage image by Water Footprint Network
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Sunday, August 26, 2012

China-Africa: You want it; they can build it

http://www.theafricareport.com/index.php/20120823501817580/sectors/china-africa-you-want-it-they-can-build-it-501817580.html

China-Africa: You want it; they can build it
Thursday, 23 August 2012
The Africa Report

Chinese contractors have become the dominant force in African
construction over the past decade, but new competitors could bring even
lower costs and improved quality.

The symbols of Africa's growth dynamic, from Algiers' Great Mosque to
the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, have been or are
being built by Chinese contractors. In late May, Uganda's National
Social Security Fund announced the shortlist of construction companies
to build the Pension Towers: the China Civil Engineering Construction
Corporation East Africa, China National Aero-Technical International
Engineering Corporation and Sinohydro Corporation. At 25 storeys,
Uganda's tallest building will be built by a Chinese construction company.

Chinese companies have made strong headway over the past decade. Backed
by national policy banks, companies such as Sino-hydro and China Railway
Construction Corporation are now the most active firms in African
infrastructure, bringing China's share of Africa's construction market
to 36.6% in 2010, according to Engineering News Review.

The largest share of Chinese construction contracts has been in large
state-to-state deals, be it mines for infrastructure in Angola and the
Democratic Republic of Congo or road, stadium and dam projects in
Cameroon and Malawi. The competition to build Uganda's tallest building
and hundreds of other tenders show that Chinese contractors can beat
their international rivals. Trouble in the US and European economies has
created more room for emerging-market competition in construction.

Americans and Europeans pull back

Chinese companies tend to favour Chinese state-backed projects, for an
important reason: many African governments struggle to pay contractors
on time. In May, several Chinese road projects ground to a halt over
unpaid arrears. In Botswana, Sinohydro stopped working on the 115km
Kang-Hukuntsi road with about 40km left to complete. The 20 odd
construction companies represented by the Chinese International
Contractors Association in Tanzania have been lobbying the government to
make payments on some of the TSh400bn ($254m) in debt that started
accumulating in 2009. Chinese firms are pav-ing about two-thirds of all
roadworks currently under construction in Tanzania, representing about
2,400km.

North American and European financiers have pulled back from dam
financing, which means that almost all recent dam contracts have been
awarded to Chinese firms. Sinohydro is working on the Memve'ele and Lom
Pangar dams in Cameroon, Grand Poubara in Gabon and F�lou in Mali. Peter
Bosshard of the non-governmental organisation International Rivers,
which has worked with Sinohydro to establish an environmental policy
framework, says that there has been a steep learning curve for Chinese
companies in Africa but that environmental and social practices are
improving. "Big state-owned enterprises have often adopted their own
standards, while smaller companies may still try to maximise short-term
profits without regard for their long-term perspectives and China's
reputation," says Bosshard.

Mirroring the technology-transfer practices that have enabled Chinese
cities to host high-tech manufacturing plants, Chinese dam builders
learned from the contractors on the Three Gorges Dam and are taking that
know-how to Africa. The same skill-building for Chinese companies goes
on in Africa, too. The $684m, 300MW gas-fired power plant at Mnazi Bay
in Tanzania is being financed by China Export-Import Bank. It is being
built by China Machinery Engineering Corporation and Germany's Siemens.
African governments have not yet insisted that Chinese and other
partners transfer their knowledge and skills to local players.

Quality concerns

As the years pass, Chinese companies are taking on more complex
projects. The China-Africa Development Fund's first project, the Asogli
gas-fired power plant in Ghana, is a combined cycle plant, meaning that
its power-generation mechanism runs off both the gas being burned and
the steam created as a by-product.

China-Africa researcher Lucy Corkin notes that while state-owned
enterprises take up the main contracting work, "smaller private Chinese
companies fill in the value chain in terms of service providers. Chinese
companies have successfully bid for World Bank projects and other non-
Chinese tenders, but there has in some cases been some resistance,
notably from the European Association of Construction Contractors."

Just as the influx of cheap and counterfeit Chinese goods has raised
concerns among consumer advocates, cracks in the wall of a newly built
hospital in Luanda and a washed-out road in Zambia have added to
criticisms about the quality of Chinese construction. Corkin explains
that Chinese construction projects in Africa face other problems: "Two
issues that are of huge importance are maintenance and compatibility, as
often the standards, components, voltage and plug sockets are imported
wholesale from China without any regard for local requirements."

The arrival of competition from other emerging markets should force all
players to improve their performance. In 2011 Turkish company Kolin
Insaat Turizm Sanayii Ve Ticaret won the contract to tarmac the
Hoima-Kaiso-Tonya road in Uganda, and Summa completed the African Union
Summit Convention Centre in Equatorial Guinea. Turkey's Export-Import
Bank announced $750m in new financing for construction projects in Libya
and Tunisia in January 2012. Brazil's Odebrecht is working on several
projects in Angola and plans to set up an office in South Africa this year.
________________________________________________

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international dam projects.

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Friday, August 24, 2012

Thousands being moved from China's Three Gorges - again

Thousands being moved from China's Three Gorges - again

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/22/us-china-threegorges-idUSBRE87L0ZW20120822

By Sui-Lee Wee

HUANGTUPO, China | Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:59pm EDT

(Reuters) - China relocated 1.3 million people during the 17 years it
took to complete the Three Gorges dam. Even after finishing the $59
billion project last month, the threat of landslides along the dam's
banks will force tens of thousands to move again.

It's a reminder of the social and environmental challenges that have
dogged the world's largest hydroelectric project. While there has been
little protest among residents who will be relocated a second time,
the environmental fallout over other big investments in China has
become a hot-button issue ahead of a leadership transition this year.

In some cases, protests have forced the scrapping of multi-billion
dollar projects. The most recent was on July 28, when Chinese
officials cancelled an industrial waste pipeline after anti-pollution
demonstrators occupied a government office in the eastern city of
Qidong, destroying computers and overturning cars.

"If the government says you have to move, you move," said Shuai
Linxiang, a 57-year-old woman among 20,000 people to be relocated from
Huangtupo, where they were resettled in 1998. "We can't oppose them."

The Three Gorges dam was completed in July when its final turbine
joined the national grid and the facility reached its full capacity of
22.5 gigawatts, more than enough to power Pakistan or Switzerland.

As the dam was being built on the Yangtze River, in central Hubei
province, authorities moved 1.3 million people who lived in what
became its 1,045 sq km (405 sq mile) reservoir, an area greater in
size than Singapore.

Reuters was recently given a rare tour of the 181-metre (600-ft) tall
dam and reservoir. In a sign of how sensitive the fresh relocations
are, plainclothes security men and people who identified themselves as
officials from the "news department" followed Reuters reporters around
the area for three days, hindering interviews by intimidating locals
with their presence.

Since word of the new resettlement has filtered out, Shuai and her
neighbors have become known in China as "Three Gorges' immigrants,
once again".

They were moved to Huangtupo in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when
the reservoir began to consume their original town.

Besides 20,000 people in Huangtupo, another 100,000 may be moved in
the next three to five years because of geological risks, Liu Yuan, an
official with the Ministry of Land and Resources in Beijing said in
April, according to state-run China National Radio.

The number of "geological hazards" had risen 70 percent since water
levels in the reservoir reached a maximum of 175 meters (574 ft), he
said, without elaborating, although he was believed to be referring to
landslides. Liu could not be reached for comment.

Landslides in Huangtupo had been exacerbated by changes in water
levels in the reservoir, said Fan Xiao, a geologist for a government-
linked institute in southwestern Sichuan province, who studied
conditions there in 2006.

Dam officials lower water levels by as much as 30 meters during the
summer in anticipation of floods, and raise them in winter. The change
softens the slopes along its banks, Fan said.

"It's like a person who's standing in place, if you push and pull him,
he'll definitely not be as stable as before," he said.

For hundreds of thousands who live on the banks, landslides can wipe
out homes. The government has not given recent statistics of deaths
from landslides but at least 48 people were killed in 2007 across the
area, according to state media.

Three Gorges officials defend the facility and say it has brought
development to an otherwise poor region.

Wang Hai, deputy head of the operations department at the complex,
said the dam did not increase the risk of landslides, which he said
were not unusual along reservoir banks.

"The stability of the reservoir banks is not worse than before," he
told Reuters in an interview.

Besides forced resettlement, the dam has been criticized for its
polluted waters. Hundreds of factories, mines and waste dumps were
submerged over the years and additional urban growth along the
reservoir has caused waste water discharge to double between 2000 and
2005, according to International Rivers, a California-based NGO that
aims to protect rivers.

An island of waste was floating in the dam's brown waters when Reuters
visited.

"After the Three Gorges dam was built, the deterioration of the water
quality is very obvious and it is irreversible," said Ai Nanshan, a
professor of environmental sciences at Sichuan University. "The water
flow has slowed down, so its ability to purify itself has deteriorated."

The dam has accelerated development along the reservoir by 50 to 100
years, said Chen Lei, another official in the Three Gorges operations
department.

"If not for the Three Gorges project, their (residents') lives would
be confined as before, deep in the mountains, a relatively backward
state of poverty," he said.

RECONSTRUCTION

Authorities are building a new town nearby called Shennongxi to house
residents of Huangtupo.

Shuai was among the first to move to one of the many seven-storey
apartment blocks painted in cream, pink and grey colors that stand
amid scorched red earth. If you don't move, we won't care about you,
she said a local official told her last year.

For income, Shuai sells groceries from her apartment. She was given
5,000 yuan ($790) as a "reward" for being among the first to move,
according to a June 2011 government document she showed Reuters; 200
yuan per person in her family and 1,000 yuan in "moving fees".

Officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the
forced relocation and compensation given to residents.

The local government will offer a new apartment and cash as
compensation for resettlement, it said in a December 2009 document
explaining the scheme, without providing details of the amounts.

It will only compensate residents according to the floor area of their
previous apartments, but will not pay extra if the apartment in
Shennongxi is bigger than their previous homes.

Residents who "reject the relocation or delay relocating" or "make
unreasonable demands for compensation again" after being compensated
will receive a warning, the local government said.

Shuai reckons 30 households have moved to Shennongxi. Her grandson,
who attends school in the town, lives away from his entire family
because there's virtually no transport.

"By moving here, we have no way to survive," she said.

In Huangtupo, many residents await the order to resettle.

"The (first) time when we moved, our home, our land, our fruit trees,
they were all finished, they were all drowned by the water," said Li
Huanggui, 94, sitting in her home in the only apartment block left
standing amid demolished buildings.

A shop owner, surnamed Qing, has been told she has to move in the
second half of the year. She relocated the first time in 2000 when
water from the reservoir flooded her home.

Asked if she thought the government would compensate her this time,
she scoffed.

"The more we move, the poorer we get," she said. ($1 = 6.3586 Chinese
yuan)

(Additional reporting by Steve Wang, Hui Li and Beijing Newsroom;
Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Dean Yates and Alex Richardson)
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Thursday, August 23, 2012

Thousands being moved from China's Three Gorges - again

[Special report by Reuters on the ongoing relocation efforts at Three
Gorges Dam as a result of the increased risk of geologic hazards along
the reservoir. See link below for the photo essay accompanying the article.]

Thousands being moved from China's Three Gorges - again
By Sui-Lee Wee, Reuters
HUANGTUPO, China
Aug 22, 2012

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/22/us-china-threegorges-idUSBRE87L0ZW20120822

(Reuters) - China relocated 1.3 million people during the 17 years it
took to complete the Three Gorges dam. Even after finishing the $59
billion project last month, the threat of landslides along the dam's
banks will force tens of thousands to move again.

It's a reminder of the social and environmental challenges that have
dogged the world's largest hydroelectric project. While there has been
little protest among residents who will be relocated a second time, the
environmental fallout over other big investments in China has become a
hot-button issue ahead of a leadership transition this year.

In some cases, protests have forced the scrapping of multi-billion
dollar projects. The most recent was on July 28, when Chinese officials
cancelled an industrial waste pipeline after anti-pollution
demonstrators occupied a government office in the eastern city of
Qidong, destroying computers and overturning cars.

"If the government says you have to move, you move," said Shuai
Linxiang, a 57-year-old woman among 20,000 people to be relocated from
Huangtupo, where they were resettled in 1998. "We can't oppose them."

The Three Gorges dam was completed in July when its final turbine joined
the national grid and the facility reached its full capacity of 22.5
gigawatts, more than enough to power Pakistan or Switzerland.

As the dam was being built on the Yangtze River, in central Hubei
province, authorities moved 1.3 million people who lived in what became
its 1,045 sq km (405 sq mile) reservoir, an area greater in size than
Singapore.

Reuters was recently given a rare tour of the 181-metre (600-ft) tall
dam and reservoir. In a sign of how sensitive the fresh relocations are,
plainclothes security men and people who identified themselves as
officials from the "news department" followed Reuters reporters around
the area for three days, hindering interviews by intimidating locals
with their presence.

Since word of the new resettlement has filtered out, Shuai and her
neighbors have become known in China as "Three Gorges' immigrants, once
again".

They were moved to Huangtupo in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the
reservoir began to consume their original town.

Besides 20,000 people in Huangtupo, another 100,000 may be moved in the
next three to five years because of geological risks, Liu Yuan, an
official with the Ministry of Land and Resources in Beijing said in
April, according to state-run China National Radio.

The number of "geological hazards" had risen 70 percent since water
levels in the reservoir reached a maximum of 175 meters (574 ft), he
said, without elaborating, although he was believed to be referring to
landslides. Liu could not be reached for comment.

Landslides in Huangtupo had been exacerbated by changes in water levels
in the reservoir, said Fan Xiao, a geologist for a government-linked
institute in southwestern Sichuan province, who studied conditions there
in 2006.

Dam officials lower water levels by as much as 30 meters during the
summer in anticipation of floods, and raise them in winter. The change
softens the slopes along its banks, Fan said.

"It's like a person who's standing in place, if you push and pull him,
he'll definitely not be as stable as before," he said.

For hundreds of thousands who live on the banks, landslides can wipe out
homes. The government has not given recent statistics of deaths from
landslides but at least 48 people were killed in 2007 across the area,
according to state media.

Three Gorges officials defend the facility and say it has brought
development to an otherwise poor region.

Wang Hai, deputy head of the operations department at the complex, said
the dam did not increase the risk of landslides, which he said were not
unusual along reservoir banks.

"The stability of the reservoir banks is not worse than before," he told
Reuters in an interview.

Besides forced resettlement, the dam has been criticized for its
polluted waters. Hundreds of factories, mines and waste dumps were
submerged over the years and additional urban growth along the reservoir
has caused waste water discharge to double between 2000 and 2005,
according to International Rivers, a California-based NGO that aims to
protect rivers.

An island of waste was floating in the dam's brown waters when Reuters
visited.

"After the Three Gorges dam was built, the deterioration of the water
quality is very obvious and it is irreversible," said Ai Nanshan, a
professor of environmental sciences at Sichuan University. "The water
flow has slowed down, so its ability to purify itself has deteriorated."

The dam has accelerated development along the reservoir by 50 to 100
years, said Chen Lei, another official in the Three Gorges operations
department.

"If not for the Three Gorges project, their (residents') lives would be
confined as before, deep in the mountains, a relatively backward state
of poverty," he said.

RECONSTRUCTION

Authorities are building a new town nearby called Shennongxi to house
residents of Huangtupo.

Shuai was among the first to move to one of the many seven-storey
apartment blocks painted in cream, pink and grey colors that stand amid
scorched red earth. If you don't move, we won't care about you, she said
a local official told her last year.

For income, Shuai sells groceries from her apartment. She was given
5,000 yuan ($790) as a "reward" for being among the first to move,
according to a June 2011 government document she showed Reuters; 200
yuan per person in her family and 1,000 yuan in "moving fees".

Officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the forced
relocation and compensation given to residents.

The local government will offer a new apartment and cash as compensation
for resettlement, it said in a December 2009 document explaining the
scheme, without providing details of the amounts.

It will only compensate residents according to the floor area of their
previous apartments, but will not pay extra if the apartment in
Shennongxi is bigger than their previous homes.

Residents who "reject the relocation or delay relocating" or "make
unreasonable demands for compensation again" after being compensated
will receive a warning, the local government said.

Shuai reckons 30 households have moved to Shennongxi. Her grandson, who
attends school in the town, lives away from his entire family because
there's virtually no transport.

"By moving here, we have no way to survive," she said.

In Huangtupo, many residents await the order to resettle.

"The (first) time when we moved, our home, our land, our fruit trees,
they were all finished, they were all drowned by the water," said Li
Huanggui, 94, sitting in her home in the only apartment block left
standing amid demolished buildings.

A shop owner, surnamed Qing, has been told she has to move in the second
half of the year. She relocated the first time in 2000 when water from
the reservoir flooded her home.

Asked if she thought the government would compensate her this time, she
scoffed.

"The more we move, the poorer we get," she said. ($1 = 6.3586 Chinese yuan)

(Additional reporting by Steve Wang, Hui Li and Beijing Newsroom;
Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Dean Yates and Alex Richardson)
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Great essay on renewables for Africa

http://www.bus-ex.com/article/energy-africa

Africa�s untapped potential

by Ansgar Kiene*

Article | Wed, 08/22/2012 - 14:47

Alongside the severe energy crises currently being experienced by most
African countries comes a huge opportunity to direct investments into
clean, efficient, renewable energy for the growth of a green economy
in Africa.
Energy is one of the keystones for social and economic development and
affects all its major aspects, such as environmental protection,
gender equality, food security, climate change mitigation, health,
education, and poverty alleviation. This is why access to affordable,
sustainable modern energy services�electricity as well as thermal
applications�is a major determinant for progress in achieving poverty
reduction and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) in Africa.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), almost two-thirds
of the African population of one billion people have no access to
electricity. In rural areas of African countries, the share of people
with access to modern energy services is as low as eight per cent.
Only four per cent of the worldwide produced electricity is generated
on the continent. On average, Africa consumes about 492 kWh per capita
compared to the EU with over 3,000 kWh; and the US which consumes
7,700 kWh per capita. With a total installed capacity of 103 GW,
Africa has less power generation capacity than, for instance, Germany
with 120 GW. Of these 103 GW, 46 per cent are located in South Africa
and 34 per cent in Northern Africa [JRC 2008].

Despite its fast-growing population and economies demanding ever more
energy, the high and ever-increasing costs of fossil fuels have lead
to a situation where 80 per cent of the African population still rely
primarily on traditional biomass, including fuel wood or charcoal,
agricultural waste and animal dung to fulfil their daily energy needs.
The consequences of the lack of access to modern energy technologies
are severe. Because of the inefficiency of traditional energy forms,
the poor often pay higher unit costs for energy in comparison. In many
cases, fuels are burned in poorly ventilated or enclosed spaces
leading to indoor air pollution. The World Health Organization (WHO)
estimates that 400,000 people, mainly women and children, in Africa
die of indoor air pollution every year.

Through the unsustainable use of biomass, Africa is losing more than
four million hectares of forest every year�twice the world�s average
deforestation rate, which makes the continent even more vulnerable to
the effects of climate change. A large percentage of household incomes
is spent on energy for electricity and cooking (diesel, kerosene,
charcoal, etc). At the same time, women invest a substantial amount of
productive time in the collection and transport of fuel wood.

In order to reach the energy-poor, political and business concepts for
sustainable energy services will have to be developed. Renewable
energies can contribute to a large number of political objectives,
such as job creation and poverty eradication, sustainable use of
resources, and the protection of both human health and the ecosystem.
This is particularly true for small to medium scale renewable energy
systems that provide affordable energy to livelihoods currently
defined by energy poverty, and help in creating employment by powering
enterprises for both rural and urban populations.

The rapid expansion of renewable energies across Africa will have a
positive impact not only on the African people, its economical
progress and the protection of its environment, but also on the world
at large, leapfrogging the fossil fuel-based development of the
industrialised countries. Energy services have a significant role in
facilitating both social and economic development�energy underpins
economic activity, enhances productivity, and provides access to
markets for trading purposes. In addition, it enables fulfilment of
the basic human needs of nutrition, warmth, and lighting; and enables
access to education, health, information and communication services.
The shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies across Africa also
has the potential of giving a boost to the achievement of all eight UN
MDGs.

Generally, almost all African countries are going through severe
energy crises, as energy demand increases more rapidly than energy
supply. The continent�s future energy production and consumption are
expected to soar. However, infrastructure is poor and outdated,
resulting in high efficiency losses. Deficient power infrastructure
dampens economic growth and weakens competitiveness by having a
disadvantageous effect on productivity. In addition, skyrocketing
prices for fossil fuels and huge costs for nuclear power plants (as
well as the issues of hazardous waste, mining and operations) leave
societies with little alternative to renewable energies. In many
cases, large scale hydropower projects are no recommendable
alternative, considering their negative environmental and social
impacts. Since an overall energy scarcity has resulted in high costs
for transport and industrial/commercial sector operations in most
African countries, sustainable economic growth can only be achieved on
the basis of renewable energy provision for industries.

Also, empirical evidence has shown that the diversification of
electricity production in African countries such as Kenya or Mauritius
resulted in a stabilisation of the power sector. Africa�s
vulnerability to external shocks, the risks related to volatile prices
for fossil fuels, and droughts in the case of large hydropower
capacity, were reduced without high subsidies or increases in the
electricity price.

By now, many renewable energy technologies have reached competitive
levels with conventional energy sources. In order to meet the energy
needs of African people in the future, massive new investments will be
required in the coming decades. The investment decisions will decide
the structure of energy systems in the next 30 to 40 years; therefore,
we will have to use this window of opportunity to transform the
national energy systems from large scale conventional power plants to
decentralised renewable energy technologies. These offer great
economic potential in an expanding market, as the renewable energy
resources in Africa have hardly been exploited, mainly due to limited
policy interest and investment levels.

Business is a main driver of development. One recent example is the
massive success of the mobile phone market in Africa, which is
exceeding all expectations. New technologies, a huge demand and the
liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, supporting active
competition, revolutionised the market drastically and led not only to
improved service delivery and quality but to a surge in overall
business activities.

Drawing on this success story, individual entrepreneurs as well as
major corporations are offering demand driven, tailor-made energy
services in Africa�applications from solar home systems providing
basic lighting to wind farms powering industrial production.
Innovative financial schemes are being developed; new distribution and
service networks are being established to guarantee maintenance. In
addition to the activities of the private sector, communities and
municipalities have begun to decide on alternative energy provision,
fostering social stability through local empowerment and public
participation.

Africa�s energy challenges require a radical scaling-up of access
which calls for an improved enabling environment, effective policy and
regulatory frameworks, improved management capacities and financial
services. Keeping in mind the unlimited renewable energy availability,
there is a huge opportunity to direct investments into clean,
efficient, renewable energy for the growth of a green economy in Africa.

*Ansgar Kiene is director of the World Future Council Africa and
coordinator of the African Renewable Energy Alliance (AREA). www.worldfuturecouncil.org
/ www.area-net.org
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Floods test Three Gorges Dam

Floods test Three Gorges Dam
By Deng Quanlun
chinadialogue
August 15, 2012

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/5108-Floods-test-Three-Gorges-Dam

In late July, the world's largest dam faced the toughest challenge in
its chequered nine-year history. Deng Quanlan reports on a continuing
controversy.


It was the fourth Yangtze flood of the year and, on July 24, the water
level at Chaotianmen in Chongqing, western China, hit 187.92 metres -
the highest flood peak since 1981. Up to 71,200 cubic metres of water
flowed past every second, 28 times faster than the Yellow River and with
volumes greater than those recorded during the huge floods of 1998 and
2010. This was the biggest test for the Three Gorges Dam in its
nine-year history.

Official reports from Chongqing city indicate its outlying districts of
Jiangjin and Yongchuan were badly impacted by the floods. In total,
around 163,000 people were affected, including more than 82,000
evacuated from their homes.

Though this was the mammoth dam's most serious test to date, in terms of
what the structure is built to withstand it was a moderate challenge at
worst; the kind of thing its operators expect to see every 20 years.
After all, the barrage was designed to be able to cope with
once-in-a-millennium floods on a daily basis, and to be able to
withstand a once-in-10-millennia flood - plus 10%.

Monitoring showed that, when the flood peak reached the dam,
displacement, seepage and deformation were all within normal ranges, and
all safety indicators remained stable. The dam had already seen three
flood peaks earlier that month.

However, as the Three Gorges Dam released more water, the flood risk
further down the Yangtze increased. The water level in China's largest
freshwater lake, Poyang, rose to its highest level for two years. Some
2,200 people were assigned to monitor dykes in the lakeside areas of
Jiujiang, Shangrao and Nanchang, as well as the stretch of the Yangtze
in Jiujiang.

If the rainy season in the upper Yangtze coincides with that of the
lower and middle parts of the river, severe flooding can hit the plains
downstream. Most years, that doesn't happen - but this year it did:
"That's the situation we're seeing now," said a Yangtze flood-prevention
official, "and so there's a lot of pressure on the lower and middle
reaches of the river."

The Three Gorges project has always been controversial, from early
discussions and initial approval to construction and operation. Renowned
hydro-engineer Huang Wanli once predicted that the dam would cause
Chongqing's ports to become blocked up with silt and gravel within a
decade.

Since the Three Gorges reservoir was filled, there have been no
repetitions of the severe flooding of 1998, which killed more than 3,700
people and left 15 million homeless. But the controversy hanging over
the dam has spread to questions about its impacts on drought and the
downstream climate. These complex issues, which interlink with hot
topics like climate change, have sustained the dam as a focus of public
debate in China.

In recent years, the Yangtze basin - not usually short of water - has
been hit by two serious droughts: first the 2006 summer drought in
Sichuan and Chongqing and, more recently, the March 2010 drought, also
in the south-west. Some people blamed these disasters on the Three
Gorges Dam.

Former chief engineer at Hunan's water authority Nie Fangrong argues
that, though the droughts were caused by a decline in rainfall, they
were exacerbated by ecosystem changes wrought in the lower Yangtze River
by the Three Gorges dam. But Cao Guangjing, chief executive of dam
developer the Three Gorges Group, has pointed out that the structure
stores water between August and October every year, and releases
increasing amounts of water from January onwards, when the reservoir
level drops. During that period, the dam is actually helping to relieve
drought, rather than holding water back, he said.

Other critics blame the barrage for changes in the climate around the
reservoir and downstream. They say it has created a low-pressure zone
which affects normal atmospheric flows, triggering extreme weather
events such as the 2006 and 2010 droughts, and the 2008 blizzards in
southern China. The Chinese Meteorological Administration and other
experts have said this is nothing to do with the dam: global climate
change is causing extreme weather. Liu Min, head of the Wuhan Regional
Climate Centre at Hubei Meteorological Bureau, said there is no data to
show that the dam has caused drought on the lower Yangtze.

The dam's most important role - flood prevention - has also been a
source of controversy. Informed sources say that local governments
downstream of the dam have all asked the operators to release less water
in order to reduce flood risks, meaning the dam is under pressure from
both sides.

The dam has long faced such difficulties. Upstream, the city of
Chongqing complains that the dam makes flood prevention more difficult -
that "Chongqing drowns to save Wuhan". Downstream, there are complaints
that it continues to release water even when there are flood risks. Cai
Qihua, head of the Yangtze River Commission, said this is a
misunderstanding: when the dam holds back floodwaters, the reservoir
level does rise, but this has little or no impact on Chongqing upstream.
The rising waters in Chongqing are due to water coming from the Jin, Min
and Jialing rivers, and water backing up at the Tongluo Gorge,
downstream of Chongqing, Cai said.

The dam's role in flood prevention is to control water coming from the
upper reaches of the Yangtze. When it comes to regional flooding
downstream, it can only play an indirect role. Weng Lida, formerly head
of the Yangtze River Commission's Water Resources Protection Bureau,
explained that the dam can retain water from upstream, but if there is
heavy rain downstream, there is nothing it can do. Nor can the dam store
all of the floodwaters - it can only hold back those which cannot be
safely released into the rivers downstream. "The flood prevention
ability of the dam is limited - it can't do everything," said Weng.

And since the dam can't do everything, it is crucial to make sure that
flood-control mechanisms along the length of the river are integrated.
"Different regions want to handle floods differently," added Weng.
"Flood prevention on the Yangtze isn't just about the Three Gorges -
it's made up of groups of reservoirs along the main river and its
tributaries, and flood-diversion areas. Both the river basin and its
regions need to be considered. That means that regional management needs
to follow instructions from basin-level management, with the Yangtze
Flood Prevention Office overseeing things."

The Yangtze Institute of Survey, Planning Design and Research has
calculated that, in the long-term, capacity of the Three Gorges
reservoir and the upstream control reservoirs will reach almost 100
billion cubic metres, and flood prevention reservoirs 50 billion cubic
metres. It would be of huge benefit to flood prevention if these can be
managed in unison. Yangtze River Commission experts say that preventing
floods on the lower Yangtze requires comprehensive flood-prevention work.

In May 2011, China's State Council - the highest state organ - admitted
in a statement that "while the Three Gorges Dam has brought great
benefits, there are still urgent issues with relocations, environmental
protection and the prevention of geological disasters; and it has had a
certain impact on navigation, irrigation and water supplies."

Given the new century has already seen a series of "once-in-a"
disasters, perhaps the incredible Three Gorges Dam is only just starting
to be tested.
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Monday, August 20, 2012

Ethiopia-China cooperation in power sector

Ethiopia-China cooperation in power sector registers remarkable achievement
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/727302.shtml
Xinhua
2012-8-16

The cooperation between Ethiopia and China in the power sector has
registered remarkable achievements in hydro and wind power construction
projects, said Alemayehu Tegenu, Ethiopian Minister of Water and Energy.

The minister made the remarks at the Handover Ceremony of Publication of
Wind Power & Solar Energy Master Plan and also Signing Ceremony of the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Hydropower Potential General
Survey of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, the country's capital.

The study of Wind and Solar Master Plan was conducted and delivered to
Ethiopia by Hydro-China Corporation (HYDROCHINA) with the financial
support from the Chinese government.

The Hydro-China Corporation and the Ethiopian Ministry of Water and
Energy also signed a MoU for the study on hydropower potential of Ethiopia.

"Today, we have seen together a real and fruitful cooperation between
Ethiopia and China, which has paved the way for us to develop our wind
and solar resources," said Alemayehu.

He also commended the Chinese government for the financial support and
hailed Hydro-China Corporation for its excellent performance.

"As you have witnessed, today we all have aware that our country has a
potential installed capacity of over 1.3 million MW from wind resource
and an annual total solar energy reserve of over 2 million TW.h, through
the study of Wind and Solar Master Plan of our country, conducted and
delivered to us by Hydro-China Corporation with the financial support of
the Government of China, " said the minister.

The minister said, "The study indicated that Ethiopia owns very rich
wind and solar energy resources that can be exploited as renewable
energy mix in the coming decades to implement the recently issued
Climate-Resilient Green Economy strategy with respect to energy
development," said the minister.

"I would like to sincerely thank the Chinese government, who has
rendered economic aid gratuitously for the study and appreciate the
excellent work performed by Hydro-China Corporation in the realization
of the country's grid connected wind and solar master plan document,
which will enable us to take informed decision in the development of our
wind and solar resources in the future," he said.

Reiterating that China and Ethiopia enjoy long-standing friendly
relations, Wei Hongtian, Charge d'Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in
Ethiopia, said China would continue to render various assistance and
support to Ethiopia.

Wei said the Chinese government attaches great importance to the
Ethio-China cooperation on renewable energy sector, in which the Adama
Wind Power Station is a new achievement.

He also expressed firm belief that the cooperation between the two
countries in clean and renewable energy development would have broader
and brighter prospect.

"The Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa
Cooperation (FOCAC) has just concluded in China last month. The Beijing
Action Plan (2013-15) of the Conference declares that China and Africa
will further actively advance cooperation in clean energy and renewable
resources projects in keeping with the principles of mutual benefit and
sustainable development. I am sure the cooperation between China and
Ethiopia in this sector will have broader and brighter prospect," said Wei.

Wang Bin, President of Hydro-China Corporation, expressed his company's
commitment to Ethiopia's wind power and renewable energy development.

"As the leading organization in the field of wind power development, we
have successfully constructed Adama Wind Power Project with Ethiopia
Electric Power Corporation," said Wang.

"Besides, HYDROCHINA are willing to share its achievements and
experience with the Ethiopian government and people, not only in the
construction of Adama wind power project, but also in proposed Adama
wind power project, which will be supported by concessional loan of the
Chinese government and Ethiopian government," Wang said.

"HYDROCHINA commits himself for long term development with investment in
large construction machinery, which will improve the equipment status
and construction capability of Ethiopia. We also plans to invest in
manufacturing of Blades and Towers in Ethiopia, which will rapidly
forming the production capability and promote the develop wind power
industry and accelerate industrialization," he said.

He also said HYDROCHINA will contribute more on specification and
standard of wind power development and construction of Ethiopian
renewable energy field, enhance the friendship of the two nations and
cope with the climate change together.

To expedite the development of the country's renewable energy resources
and to increase the energy mix, the Ethiopian government entered into an
agreement with the Chinese government to undertake the country's wind
and solar energy resource assessment Master Plan in 2010, recalled
Minister Alemayehu.

On February 22, 2011, HYDROCHINA formally entrusted Hydro-China
International to organize and manage the Master Plan, and Beijing
Engineering Corporation undertook the implementation and design of the
Master Plan, he said.

Alemayehu said the current total installed electricity generation
capacity of Ethiopia has reached 2,178 MW from its baseline level of 800
MW only three years ago.

"The delivery of an adequate electricity service is essential to fulfill
the high growth rate of electricity demand the generation capacity will
increase to 10,000 MW at the end of Growth and Transformation Plan
(2010/11-2014/15), thus meeting the existing high rate of growth of
electricity demand in Ethiopia and also allowing the export of the
surplus power to the region," he said.

To this end, the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
project, which has 6,000 MW installed capacity, is going on at a rapid
pace according to the schedule. At present more than 10.5 percent of the
project work is completed, said the minister.
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Kenya won't cancel power agreement with Ethiopia

http://allafrica.com/stories/201208180344.html

East Africa: Kenya Not to Cancel Power Purchase Deal With Ethiopia


17 August 2012

Kenya has dismissed calls for the cancellation of a multi-million
dollar power purchase agreement with Ethiopia inprotest of a massive
hydropower project that water scientists say will alter the lives of
residents of Turkana region in Kenya.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga said despite ongoing efforts to expand
electricity generation through investments in green energy
initiatives, the demand for electric power in the East African nation
would continue to grow, which justifies the need to import power from
neighboring Ethiopia to meet the shortfalls."We will lower the cost of
energy through the importation of power from Ethiopia," Odinga said
late on Wednesday.

Environmentalists say the 1.7 billion U.S. dollar hydropower project
would alter the lives of half a million residents of Lake Turkana and
other regions neighboring Sothern Ethiopia. There are fears that the
Omo River, which supplies water to the Gibe III Dam under
construction, would affect water levels on Lake Victoria if its course
is altered as proposed in the design of the power plant.

Kenyan parliamentarian, Ekwe Ethuro, who represents Turkana, said his
constituents were deeply concerned that the environmental impact of
the project could far outweigh the benefits. "Any project that alters
the flow and course of the Omo River will have effects," Ethuro
said.Odinga said Nairobi was aware of the environmental impacts the
Dam project would have on the residents of Turkana, but insisted the
analysis by Kenyan scientists working on the project showed it would
be temporary. "Omo River is the biggest river flowing into Turkana.

Our concern it (project) will undermine the flow of the river. Our
scientists are working on it. It is true there will be a disruption
but this is temporary. The bulk of the water will flow into the
irrigation project," Odinga said, to much parliamentary opposition.

Odinga said although there were possible environmental impacts, Kenya
was in no position to stop Ethiopia from using the waters of Omo River
as a resource. "We have engaged Ethiopia constructively. Ethiopia will
sell electricity to us and we are financing this project because it
will lower the cost of energy," Odinga asserted.The two governments
formed a joint council to deal with matters arising as a result of the
use of the Omo River waters, amid complaints from international non
governmental organizations. Kenya aims to raise its annual electricity
output to 15,000 megawatts while Ethiopia's target is to raise
electric power production to 37,000 MW and become the region's biggest
exporter of power.

The two countries signed a power purchase agreement in 2011 and agreed
on the terms of constructing a regional power inter- connector to
link their grids and implement the regional trade in electricity.

Xinhua
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Thursday, August 16, 2012

China's role in funding Ethiopian dam draws ire

China's role in funding Ethiopian dam draws ire

Ethiopia says construction of a dam along the Omo River will create
needed electrical power for itself and Kenya, and channel water for food
production. Environmentalists worry it could drain a Kenyan desert lake
central to people's livelihoods.

By Fredrick Nzwili, Correspondent
Christian Science Monitor
August 16, 2012

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2012/0816/China-s-role-in-funding-Ethiopian-dam-draws-ire

NAIROBI, KENYA

Kenyan environmental activists want the Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China to hold off on a promise to invest $500 million in Ethiopia's
$1.7 billion Gibe III Hydro-electric Dam, which they say threatens Lake
Turkana - the world's largest permanent desert lake, and a crucial
source of water for half a million people.

The controversial dam is being built on the Omo River in eastern
Ethiopia, which supplies the lake in northwestern Kenya with 90 per of
its water. Once completed, the dam will affect the livelihoods of some
200,000 in the river valley and 300,000 more near the lake, the
activists warn.

Friends of Lake Turkana - a Kenyan organization representing indigenous
communities in northwestern Kenya whose livelihood depend mainly on the
lake - had earlier estimated that that Gibe III could shrink the lake,
which straddles the Kenyan-Ethiopian border, by 10 meters (about 30
feet). This could cause an increase in salinity in the lake's water,
making it undrinkable for indigenous groups who live around the lake
with their animals. Recently, resource-related conflicts have ignited
between the nomadic pastoralist communities, and are expected to
increase if the dam is completed.

"Lake Turkana is home to large number of some of the most massive Nile
crocodiles, hippos, and other large animals, all which would find it
hard to survive without the lake," said Dr. Richard Leakey, a renowned
Kenyan conservationist and paleoanthropologist.

There are also a wide variety of unique birds and other wildlife all of
which would find it hard to survive without the lake or if the water
nutrients were to change as drastically as studies have predicated will
happen if Gibe III is successfully completed, according to the groups.

The lake's survival hangs in the balance as China decides whether to
fund the dam project, says Ikal Angelei, founder of Friends of Lake
Turkana and the winner of the 2012 Goldman Environment Prize for Africa.

"The lake is in the danger of drying unless the Kenyan government and
international agencies step in to stop the unsustainable development
both within and outside Kenya," said Ms. Angelei at a news conference in
Nairobi.

"While many would-be financiers have withdrawn ... China still holds [to
its] promise," she added.

The Kenyan government, which would benefit from a new source of
electrical power, has been quiet about the project. But In August 2011,
the Kenyan parliament passed a resolution demanding the suspension of
dam construction pending environmental assessment studies.

In June, UNESCO World Heritage Sites committee rejected an appeal by the
Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to place Lake Turkana in the
list of world sites in danger, a development that outraged environmental
conservation groups.

"The lake needs all the protection it can get against the vagaries of
climate change, Gibe III, and the thirsty sugar cane and cotton
plantations that Ethiopia is developing along the Omo River," said Angelei.

Chinese company Dongfang Electric Corp. has been contracted to carry out
construction work, according to reports, as the country searches for
more funds to complete the dam. Two-thirds of the work reportedly is
already done. The Italian construction company Salini Costruttori is the
primary construction contractor, while Dongfang will be responsible for
the hydromechanical and electromechanical part of the project, the chief
executive of the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corp., was quoted
as saying by Ethiopian news organizations.

Environmentalists also are angry at the World Bank, which declined to
fund the Gibe III dam project itself, but did approve a $684 million
loan to build a 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) transmission line from the
dam into Kenya. For them, this is an endorsement of the massive dam and
its associated irrigation projects, which affects the food security of
thousands. The bank argues that the transmission line will connect
Ethiopia's overall power grid with Kenya's to create a power-sharing
arrangement between the two countries, reducing energy costs and
promoting sustainable and renewable power generation.

Ethiopia plans to sell 60 percent of the electricity generated to Kenya
through the transmission line. Ethiopia will also use the dam to help
irrigate large swaths of land for cotton and sugar-cane cultivation.

In addition to environmental concerns, the dam project has drawn
criticism from human rights groups, who want the donors to ensure their
funding is not supporting activities that amount to an abuse of people's
rights.

"Ethiopia's desire to accelerate economic development is laudable, but
recent events in the Omo Valley are taking an unacceptable toll on the
rights and livelihoods of indigenous communities," said Ben Rawlence,
Human Rights Watch's senior African researcher, at a recent news conference.

The Turkana basin is also an important archeological site.
Archaeologists and scientists in August discovered three new fossils
near the lake that indicate previously undocumented early human species.

"This means Turkana basin is of global importance to the origin of
mankind," said Dr. Leakey, whose Turkana Basin Institute led the recent
fossil discovery.
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international dam projects.

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China's role in funding Ethiopian dam draws ire /Christian Sci Monitor

China's role in funding Ethiopian dam draws ire
Ethiopia says construction of a dam along the Omo River will create
needed electrical power for itself and Kenya, and channel water for
food production. Environmentalists worry it could drain a Kenyan
desert lake central to people's livelihoods.

By Fredrick Nzwili, Correspondent / August 16, 2012

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2012/0816/China-s-role-in-funding-Ethiopian-dam-draws-ire
Nairobi, Kenya

Kenyan environmental activists want the Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China to hold off on a promise to invest $500 million in Ethiopia�s
$1.7 billion Gibe III Hydro-electric Dam, which they say threatens
Lake Turkana � the world's largest permanent desert lake, and a
crucial source of water for half a million people.

The controversial dam is being built on the Omo River in eastern
Ethiopia, which supplies the lake in northwestern Kenya with 90 per of
its water. Once completed, the dam will affect the livelihoods of some
200,000 in the river valley and 300,000 more near the lake, the
activists warn.
Friends of Lake Turkana � a Kenyan organization representing
indigenous communities in northwestern Kenya whose livelihood depend
mainly on the lake � had earlier estimated that that Gibe III could
shrink the lake, which straddles the Kenyan-Ethiopian border, by 10
meters (about 30 feet). This could cause an increase in salinity in
the lake�s water, making it undrinkable for indigenous groups who live
around the lake with their animals. Recently, resource-related
conflicts have ignited between the nomadic pastoralist communities,
and are expected to increase if the dam is completed.

�Lake Turkana is home to large number of some of the most massive Nile
crocodiles, hippos, and other large animals, all which would find it
hard to survive without the lake,� said Dr. Richard Leakey, a renowned
Kenyan conservationist and paleoanthropologist.

There are also a wide variety of unique birds and other wildlife all
of which would find it hard to survive without the lake or if the
water nutrients were to change as drastically as studies have
predicated will happen if Gibe III is successfully completed,
according to the groups.

The lake's survival hangs in the balance as China decides whether to
fund the dam project, says Ikal Angelei, founder of Friends of Lake
Turkana and the winner of the 2012 Goldman Environment Prize for Africa.

�The lake is in the danger of drying unless the Kenyan government and
international agencies step in to stop the unsustainable development
both within and outside Kenya,� said Ms. Angelei at a news conference
in Nairobi.

�While many would-be financiers have withdrawn ... China still holds
[to its] promise,� she added.


The Kenyan government, which would benefit from a new source of
electrical power, has been quiet about the project. But In August
2011, the Kenyan parliament passed a resolution demanding the
suspension of dam construction pending environmental assessment studies.

In June, UNESCO World Heritage Sites committee rejected an appeal by
the Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to place Lake Turkana
in the list of world sites in danger, a development that outraged
environmental conservation groups.
�The lake needs all the protection it can get against the vagaries of
climate change, Gibe III, and the thirsty sugar cane and cotton
plantations that Ethiopia is developing along the Omo River,� said
Angelei.

Chinese company Dongfang Electric Corp. has been contracted to carry
out construction work, according to reports, as the country searches
for more funds to complete the dam. Two-thirds of the work reportedly
is already done. The Italian construction company Salini Costruttori
is the primary construction contractor, while Dongfang will be
responsible for the hydromechanical and electromechanical part of the
project, the chief executive of the state-owned Ethiopian Electric
Power Corp., was quoted as saying by Ethiopian news organizations.

Environmentalists also are angry at the World Bank, which declined to
fund the Gibe III dam project itself, but did approve a $684 million
loan to build a 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) transmission line from the
dam into Kenya. For them, this is an endorsement of the massive dam
and its associated irrigation projects, which affects the food
security of thousands. The bank argues that the transmission line will
connect Ethiopia's overall power grid with Kenya's to create a power-
sharing arrangement between the two countries, reducing energy costs
and promoting sustainable and renewable power generation.

Ethiopia plans to sell 60 percent of the electricity generated to
Kenya through the transmission line. Ethiopia will also use the dam to
help irrigate large swaths of land for cotton and sugar-cane
cultivation.

In addition to environmental concerns, the dam project has drawn
criticism from human rights groups, who want the donors to ensure
their funding is not supporting activities that amount to an abuse of
people�s rights.

�Ethiopia�s desire to accelerate economic development is laudable, but
recent events in the Omo Valley are taking an unacceptable toll on the
rights and livelihoods of indigenous communities,� said Ben Rawlence,
Human Rights Watch's senior African researcher, at a recent news
conference.

The Turkana basin is also an important archeological site.
Archaeologists and scientists in August discovered three new fossils
near the lake that indicate previously undocumented early human species.

�This means Turkana basin is of global importance to the origin of
mankind,� said Dr. Leakey, whose Turkana Basin Institute led the
recent fossil discovery.

Related stories
� A Kenyan woman stands up against a massive dam project
� Land scarcity drives a bout of ethnic violence in Kenya, Ethiopia
� Africa Rising: Economic progress vs. cultural preservation in
Ethiopia
Previous
1 | 2
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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Yangtze dolphin's decline mirrored by other animals

Yangtze dolphin's decline mirrored by other animals
10 August 2012
By Tom Marshall, Natural Environment Resource Council

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1266

Monitoring numbers of the baiji, the now-extinct freshwater dolphin of
the Yangtze river, would also have let researchers track the decline of
other threatened animals, including the Yangtze paddlefish and Reeves'
shad, a new study shows.

Download the study free here:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0037902


A disproportionate amount of public attention and conservation resources
tend to go towards big, impressive animals like the baiji, and the paper
� published in PLoS ONE � suggests that conservationists could take
advantage of this; research on these creatures could be used indirectly
to shed light on the population trends of their less media-friendly
neighbours.

The idea that so-called 'charismatic megafauna' like whales and tigers
could provide an index of the overall health of their environment isn't
new, but it's proved difficult to demonstrate in a rigorous way.

Dr Samuel Turvey of the Institute of Zoology repeatedly travelled to
China over the last few years to interview fishermen on the Yangtze
about when they last saw various threatened species including the baiji.
It's become clear that the baiji is now extinct, but analysing the
results of these interviews shows not only that the paddlefish and shad
have both declined and may also be extinct, but also that the curves
representing their plummeting numbers match that of the baiji very closely.

This was a surprise, as the three animals filled very different
ecological niches and on the face of things might be expected to react
differently to the same threats and environmental pressures.

'There was no reason to think that these species would have similar
patterns of decline over time - they're very different in their ecology
and in how they were exploited, although we know that all three were
affected by fisheries,' Turvey says. 'There's very little information on
the shad and the paddlefish, so we can only infer the pattern of their
declines retrospectively - we've only found out what happened to them
when it's already too late. Conservation resources are limited and are
likely to be focused on charismatic animals, but because the status of
such animals can match that of other species, we can at least try to get
as much benefit as possible from that.'

One common thread is that all three species used to migrate up and down
the river to get to better feeding or breeding grounds, so their
reproductive cycles were more easily disrupted by barriers like dams
that blocked their passage. They also all suffered badly from
overfishing, as well as pollution and other environmental problems.
Other non-migratory animals, such as members of the carp and catfish
families, are still relatively common in the Yangtze despite its
degraded state.

On the other hand, changes in the frequency of sightings of the finless
porpoise, another large aquatic mammal that still survives in the
Yangtze, weren't linked to those of the other animals.

Turvey isn't sure why. The porpoise isn't migratory, so it doesn't share
the feature that could have contributed to the other three species'
increased vulnerability. He suggests that because porpoises are still
encountered by fishermen fairly regularly, it's harder to document
changes to the state of their population using last-sighting reports.

The porpoise is also highly threatened and is declining too, but Turvey
is hopeful that efforts to protect it will be more effective than they
were for the baiji. Because the river ecosystem has been damaged so
badly, the best hope for protecting animals is to set up reserves away
from the main river, where animals can be protected and won't face the
same fierce environmental pressures. Efforts to do this for the baiji
never got off the ground, whereas porpoise reserves are already in place
and working well.

He adds that the research could be applied in other river ecosystems
with big, media-friendly inhabitants, such as Ganges or Irawaddy dolphins.


Turvey, S.T., Risley, C.L., Barrett, L.A., Hao, Y. & Wang, D. (2012).
River dolphins can act as population trend indicators in degraded
freshwater systems. PLoS ONE 7(5): e37902.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0037902
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Friday, August 10, 2012

Dam shows flaws in China's economic model

[Apologies for cross-posting]

Dam shows flaws in China's economic model
by Rob Schmitz
Marketplace (American Public Media)
August 9, 2012

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/dam-shows-flaws-chinas-economic-model

The Yangtze River, near the town of Luohuang. This section of the river
belongs to a nature reserve created to protect hundreds of species of
fish, including the Chinese Paddlefish. When built, the Xiaonanhai Dam
will destroy the reserve, flooding it, creating an enormous reservoir.
At around five billion dollars, the dam is one of Chongqing's largest
investment projects. Critics say Bo Xilai championed the project to help
the city acheieve historic GDP growth numbers, thereby securing himself
a spot in China's top leadership.



Kai Ryssdal: China's trial of the century was over today almost as
quickly as it started. Seven hours beginning to end for the wife of
disgraced politician Bo Xilai. She's accused of murdering a British
businessman.

Bo Xilai himself, once a hugely powerful party chief in the southwestern
city of Chongqing, was cashiered in April for violations of discipline,
the party said. His legacy lives on, though, through the political
machine he built. And a lot of actual things he built.

Marketplace's Rob Schmitz explains.

Rob Schmitz: Scientists say the Chinese Paddlefish has lived on Earth
for more than a hundred million years. It survived an asteroid impact
thought to have killed off the dinosaurs. It lived through the Ice Age.
Nothing, it seemed, could kill this animal.

But then along came China's Communist Party. It built enormous dams on
the Yangtze River, cutting off the paddlefish's migratory path, making
it nearly impossible for the fish to reproduce.

The last Chinese paddlefish was seen here on this nature reserve, on the
upper reaches of the Yangtze six years ago. Scientist Yang Bo studies
the river for the Nature Conservancy.

Yang Bo: If we worked harder to protect the fish, we might be able to
restore its habitat. But if this new dam is built, we won't have a chance.

She's talking about the Xiaonanhai Dam. The dam was Bo Xilai's pet
project. But now, Bo's gone. Still, the government's going ahead with
the dam.

And that angers Weng Lida. Weng is the former head of the government
bureau charged with protecting the Yangtze. He first heard about the
project when Bo Xilai sent a team to try and sell him on the idea.

Weng Lida: Economically, the project made no sense. They wanted billions
for a dam that would generate relatively little electricity. Then I
thought the dam might help with irrigation, but that didn't make sense
either.

Weng was convinced Bo Xilai wanted to build this dam for only one reason.

Weng: This is all about GDP. This will cost five billion dollars to
build. It's one of the biggest investments in the history of Chongqing.
Bo wanted the best GDP growth numbers in China'he wanted to make sure
growth stayed over 14 percent annually.

Bo got what he wanted -- the investment secured for the Xiaonanhai dam
helped catapult Chongqing's GDP growth to a whopping 16.4 percent last year.

Patrick Chovanec: For a long time now, the main way to get ahead as a
local official in China was to produce high levels of growth and hit or
exceed GDP targets.

Patrick Chovanec is a professor at Tsinghua University's school of
economics and management. He says Bo helped fund Chongqing's investment
boom by cracking down hard what he labeled the mafia, seizing their
assets, then using them as collateral to borrow money from state banks.
According to former government official Weng Lida, Bo's underlings
bribed a colleague of his to write a favorable report on the dam's
environmental impact. And when China's Ministry of Agriculture raised
objections to the dam, Weng's friends there told him Bo went straight to
the top of the ministry, exerting enough pressure to change their minds.

But Bo's way of operating was hardly unique among China's government
officials, says Patrick Chovanec.

Chovanec: The party is on dangerous ground in any of the charges they
level against Bo, whether it be the corruption or whether it be wasteful
economic policies, because when they point the finger at Bo, they kind
of point the finger at themselves.

The farm of 54-year-old Li Long Rui won't survive when the dam is built.
Government officials have just measured her house to determine how much
she'll be compensated after its flooded. Tens of thousands of people
will have to move out of this area.

Li Long Rui: I have no idea where I'll move. And I'm sure local
officials will steal from the compensation money I'm owed. All of them
are so corrupt! They just don't care about us farmers.

As for the Chinese Paddlefish, its final resting place might be here, in
the quiet halls of the Yangtze River Museum of Aquatic Organisms,
downriver in the city of Wuhan. Scientist Wu Qingjiang says the
Xiaonanhai dam is one of many proposed dams he's worried about. One day
soon, says Wu, the upper Yangtze will cease to be a river -- it'll be a
series of cascading reservoirs leading from one dam to the next.

Wu Qingjiang: In the short term, these dams may help develop the local
economy, but if you take the long view, there are things you can never
recover, like this fish. Once it's gone, it's gone.

One of many species wiped out by one of the worst predators to come
along in millions of years: ambitious government officials with a
seemingly insatiable appetite for GDP growth.

Reporting from Chongqing and Wuhan, I'm Rob Schmitz for Marketplace.
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