Clearly, it's been too long since I've done this as everything I find seems to be exciting to me. Completely off-topic but interesting nevertheless, particularly in lieu of misbehaviors in the past by the Chinese navy, the problems of clashes between Taiwanese and Chinese fishermen and their respective authorities, and the numbers used in the article which hint at an on-going problem larger than I'd ever suspected.
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=040000&biid=2008092727878
Coast Guard Found Dead After Fishing Boat Scuffle
Listen
SEPTEMBER 27, 2008 01:08
A Korean Coast Guard officer who tried to board a Chinese boat illegally fishing in Korea’s exclusive economic zone was thrown into the ocean and drowned yesterday after the Chinese crew resisted.
The Mokpo Coast Guard around 1:10 p.m. Friday found the body of Park Gyeong-jo, 48, a sergeant who had gone missing the previous day near Gageo Island off the coast of Shinan, South Jeolla Province.
In Korea, seizing illegally operating Chinese ships is like waging war. The Coast Guard often has to chase Chinese vessels in high waves or engage in a life-or-death battle against fishermen brandishing deadly weapons.
The following account is from the Mokpo Coast Guard’s investigation report.
▽ Pushed into the water by resisting fishermen
At 7 p.m. Thursday, a patrol vessel of the Mokpo Coast Guard detected two unidentified 50-ton Chinese fishing ships on its radar 70 kilometers west of Gageo Island within Korea’s exclusive economic zone.
Captain Kim Do-su looked through a telescope at the two Chinese ships, which hid their vessels’ names. He dispatched 17 officers to capture the vessels.
The Mokpo Coast Guard then ordered the Chinese ships to turn off their engines, as both vessels were only 300 meters away from the patrol ship. One of the fishing ships fled back toward China, but Korean officers in speedboats blocked the other ship’s way.
As three officers including Park tried to get onboard the captured fishing ship, some 10 Chinese fishermen resisted with iron pipes and shovels and also threw empty bottles and fishing gear.
The three officers used gas guns and clubs against the fishermen, but were all pushed by them. Park fell in the sea while the other two officers fell on the boat.
While maritime police searched for Park, the Chinese ship escaped. At 1:10 p.m. Friday, or 18 hours after he went missing, Park was found dead in a lifejacket six kilometers south from the scene of the scuffle.
Park began his law enforcement career in 1990 and had worked on patrol ships and for Mokpo police. He had served as the patrol ship’s weapons manager since March this year.
Around 10 p.m. Thursday, the Coast Guard captured the second Chinese vessel that fled to China with 11 sailors on board 200 kilometers west from the island of Hongdo.
“Though no external problem was found in the initial autopsy, we cannot rule out that his death was caused by a weapon. So we will conduct a full autopsy Saturday,” said a Coast Guard official.
▽ Deadly battles with Chinese fishermen
Three years ago, four Korean Coast Guard officers were seriously wounded after being beaten with iron pipes by Chinese sailors whose ship was about to be seized for illegal operations within Korean waters.
On May 24, the Incheon Coast Guard attempted to seize two Chinese ships that crossed into Korean waters to illegally fish 43 kilometers west of Baekryeong Island.
Twelve Korean officers approached the Chinese ships in two speedboats. Six of them boarded one of the ships and subdued the crew, but the remaining six faced strong resistance from 18 Chinese fishermen wielding iron pipes.
During the clash, a Korean sergeant was hit by an iron pipe and collapsed. Chinese fishermen threw him into the ocean and the rest of the Korean officers jumped in the water to rescue him. The two Chinese vessels fled but were later captured.
Members of the Korean Coast Guard risk their lives in cracking down on Chinese boats illegally fishing in Korean waters. Though Chinese ships no longer “sweep” fish, some unlicensed ships still illegally catch fish secretly at night, when supervision is more difficult.
Chinese fishermen fiercely resist arrest to avoid tens of millions of won in fines if caught fishing without permission.
“We go on patrol with gas guns, clubs and electric shock devices, but it’s very difficult to subdue them in the ocean,” said a Mokpo Coast Guard officer. “It’s frightening when they put up a life-or-death fight. I felt my life threatened many times.”
This year alone, 159 Chinese ships have been captured for illegal operations. Though a record-high 584 Chinese ships were captured in 2005, the number has since fallen, dropping to 494 last year.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
China Water: September 27, 2008: China corn situation.
A bit off-topic, but seemingly important nevertheless. USGC stands for the US Grain Council, an organization that works to develop increased opportunites for the export of US grains.
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Content.asp?ContentID=255786
9/26/2008 10:54:00 AM
USGC: Feed Demand Growing In China, Acreage Maxed
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 26, 2008 � Higher corn yields are expected in China for 2008 compared to 2007 resulting in 153.54 million metric tons (6 billion bushels), said Cary Sifferath, U.S. Grains Council senior director in China. Sifferath and Charles Ring of the Texas Corn Producers Board toured corn fields in the Northeastern provinces of Heilonjiang and Jilin, China to assess the corn crop and formulate an estimate of this year�s harvest. The tour consisted of four groups of agriculturists evaluating nearly 300 cornfields.
�Our number this year shows a 1.13 percent increase over the government�s number last year which was 151.86 million tons (6 billion bushels),� Sifferath said. �It seems there will be better yield numbers this year although there were spots of drought, wind and hail damage in some areas.� Sifferath said the national average yield for all provinces is 5.28 tons per hectare (84 bushels per acre) with Jilin province showing the highest yield the tour saw in terms of production at 111 bushels per acre. �Production acreage has been capped as the government is trying to set up regulations to contain the loss of farm land. Any increases in corn acreage are done so at the expense of another crop,� he said.
Despite the improved yield numbers in 2008, there seems to be little sign that China will begin exporting corn anytime soon as the government has been trying to control food inflation. �The government has virtually shut down exports of corn, wheat and rice. Other than a few sales trying to go through, there are no real exports going on at all, Sifferath said.� He also said feed demand in China is increasing with more corn going into the country�s swine industry, among others.
In terms of annual stock numbers in China, there are no official numbers but according to JCI, an economic analysis company which joined the tour, the estimated number for 2008 is 32 million tons (126 million bushels) compared to last year�s number of 43 million tons (1.6 billion bushels), said Sam Niu, USGC assistant director in China.
�The farmers in China are very efficient with what they have,� observed Ring. �They don�t waste anything and family is the central point of their work.� The U.S. Grains Council�s China Corn Tour is conducted every year in the absence of reliable corn crop estimates from the Chinese government authorities.
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Content.asp?ContentID=255786
9/26/2008 10:54:00 AM
USGC: Feed Demand Growing In China, Acreage Maxed
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 26, 2008 � Higher corn yields are expected in China for 2008 compared to 2007 resulting in 153.54 million metric tons (6 billion bushels), said Cary Sifferath, U.S. Grains Council senior director in China. Sifferath and Charles Ring of the Texas Corn Producers Board toured corn fields in the Northeastern provinces of Heilonjiang and Jilin, China to assess the corn crop and formulate an estimate of this year�s harvest. The tour consisted of four groups of agriculturists evaluating nearly 300 cornfields.
�Our number this year shows a 1.13 percent increase over the government�s number last year which was 151.86 million tons (6 billion bushels),� Sifferath said. �It seems there will be better yield numbers this year although there were spots of drought, wind and hail damage in some areas.� Sifferath said the national average yield for all provinces is 5.28 tons per hectare (84 bushels per acre) with Jilin province showing the highest yield the tour saw in terms of production at 111 bushels per acre. �Production acreage has been capped as the government is trying to set up regulations to contain the loss of farm land. Any increases in corn acreage are done so at the expense of another crop,� he said.
Despite the improved yield numbers in 2008, there seems to be little sign that China will begin exporting corn anytime soon as the government has been trying to control food inflation. �The government has virtually shut down exports of corn, wheat and rice. Other than a few sales trying to go through, there are no real exports going on at all, Sifferath said.� He also said feed demand in China is increasing with more corn going into the country�s swine industry, among others.
In terms of annual stock numbers in China, there are no official numbers but according to JCI, an economic analysis company which joined the tour, the estimated number for 2008 is 32 million tons (126 million bushels) compared to last year�s number of 43 million tons (1.6 billion bushels), said Sam Niu, USGC assistant director in China.
�The farmers in China are very efficient with what they have,� observed Ring. �They don�t waste anything and family is the central point of their work.� The U.S. Grains Council�s China Corn Tour is conducted every year in the absence of reliable corn crop estimates from the Chinese government authorities.
China Water: September 27, 2008: Flash floods, landslides in Sichuan, recovering earthquake zone.
September 27, 2008
CHINA
BEIJING - Flash floods and landslides unleashed by heavy rains have killed 16 people in one of the areas hit hardest by the massive May earthquake in China's Sichuan province, the local government said yesterday. About 20,000 people affected by the floods were moved to safer places and given food and water, the city's Communist Party propaganda department said in a statement. The flooding and landslides since Wednesday also have left 48 people missing and 360 people injured in Sichuan's Mianyang city, the agency said. More than 42,000 houses have been reported destroyed. (AP)
CHINA
BEIJING - Flash floods and landslides unleashed by heavy rains have killed 16 people in one of the areas hit hardest by the massive May earthquake in China's Sichuan province, the local government said yesterday. About 20,000 people affected by the floods were moved to safer places and given food and water, the city's Communist Party propaganda department said in a statement. The flooding and landslides since Wednesday also have left 48 people missing and 360 people injured in Sichuan's Mianyang city, the agency said. More than 42,000 houses have been reported destroyed. (AP)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Update: September 12, 2008:
As mentioned previously I try to do some work on this blog each week.
Last week, that didn't really happen due to obligations related to the new job., Apologies.
However, this week, should it not happen, my excuse is that China Water Blog blog time has been spent instead in reading Elizabeth C. Economy's book "The River Runs Black --The Environmental Challenge to China's Future," 2004, Cornell University Press. It's a well-footnoted, well-researched book and I'm finding it both rewarding and interesting, although I am only about a third of the way through. I look forward to reading the rest.
A couple months ago, when I started this I read Mark Elvin's "Retreat of the Elephants --an Environmental History of China." Although I found that book both informative and interesting, as well, I also found it a bit too wide-reaching in scope to contain the sort of details that hold my interest throughout. This may simply be personal preference though and besides Elvin's work provides a reader with context to understand more detailed studies that come later. Both are well worth reading although Economy's book is of more immediate relevance and interest, in my opinion.
Last week, that didn't really happen due to obligations related to the new job., Apologies.
However, this week, should it not happen, my excuse is that China Water Blog blog time has been spent instead in reading Elizabeth C. Economy's book "The River Runs Black --The Environmental Challenge to China's Future," 2004, Cornell University Press. It's a well-footnoted, well-researched book and I'm finding it both rewarding and interesting, although I am only about a third of the way through. I look forward to reading the rest.
A couple months ago, when I started this I read Mark Elvin's "Retreat of the Elephants --an Environmental History of China." Although I found that book both informative and interesting, as well, I also found it a bit too wide-reaching in scope to contain the sort of details that hold my interest throughout. This may simply be personal preference though and besides Elvin's work provides a reader with context to understand more detailed studies that come later. Both are well worth reading although Economy's book is of more immediate relevance and interest, in my opinion.
China Media: September 12, 2008: Environmental Transparency in China?
The September 12, 2008, edition of Asia Times Online included this interesting article on governmental transparency or lack thereof in China today.
See
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JI12Ad01.html
It begins:
China's transparency is just thin air
By Owen Fletcher
BEIJING - May's arrival this year armed Huang Youjian for a short-lived fight against the government.
Huang, a retiree from Rucheng county in the southern province of Hunan, saw a local government report last autumn that revealed a possible corrupt deal involving his former employer, the county waterworks. Millions of dollars in investment appeared to have disappeared in the state-owned enterprise's partial privatization.
Huang demanded that the county authorities make the report public. They refused.
So, when China's first national regulations on government information openness took effect on May 1, Huang filed a case
with the county court. He requested that the authorities be ordered to disclose the report's contents.
Four months later, the report remains confidential. Both the county court and an intermediate city court rejected Huang's case. Huang appealed to the Hunan High Court in June. He is still waiting for a response.
With cases like Huang's hitting dead ends around the country, China's new regulations on information openness appear to be making little mark on a government unprepared to concede rights to citizens.
See
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JI12Ad01.html
It begins:
China's transparency is just thin air
By Owen Fletcher
BEIJING - May's arrival this year armed Huang Youjian for a short-lived fight against the government.
Huang, a retiree from Rucheng county in the southern province of Hunan, saw a local government report last autumn that revealed a possible corrupt deal involving his former employer, the county waterworks. Millions of dollars in investment appeared to have disappeared in the state-owned enterprise's partial privatization.
Huang demanded that the county authorities make the report public. They refused.
So, when China's first national regulations on government information openness took effect on May 1, Huang filed a case
with the county court. He requested that the authorities be ordered to disclose the report's contents.
Four months later, the report remains confidential. Both the county court and an intermediate city court rejected Huang's case. Huang appealed to the Hunan High Court in June. He is still waiting for a response.
With cases like Huang's hitting dead ends around the country, China's new regulations on information openness appear to be making little mark on a government unprepared to concede rights to citizens.
Monday, September 1, 2008
China Water: September 1, 2008: Beijing's aquifer level rises slightly.
From the August 28, Wall Street Journal, after decades of drop, the water level in the aquifer beneath Beijing rose half a meter during the last year, according to some sources.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121986665108677159.html?mod=rss_whats_news_asia
China Conservation Efforts Aid Aquifer Levels
By SHAI OSTER
August 28, 2008; Page A8
BEIJING -- Underground water levels in Beijing are rising this year, reversing a nearly decadelong decline, in part because of conservation efforts tied to the Olympics.
Aquifer levels in the Chinese capital have risen about half a meter this year, after having fallen about one meter each year since 1999 due to drought. The shortage had forced the city to dig ever-deeper wells, which provide the bulk of its municipal water.
The increase comes despite warnings from environmentalists that the Olympics would contribute to a greater strain on Beijing's water resources, with water being diverted from neighboring regions to supply everything from competition venues to the 40 million ornamental flowers around the city.
The government has rejected those admonitions. Officials say the water supply has benefited from unusually plentiful summer rains as well as decreasing demand and greater water recycling that the government pushed as part Beijing's efforts toward a "Green Olympics." Overall, water consumption fell to less than 3.4 billion cubic meters last year, from 4.04 billion cubic meters in 2000, officials say. Waste-water treatment rates have passed 90% as the city rolled out new treatment plants in time for the Games.
The data suggest that some of the environmental-protection efforts for the Olympics could have a lasting impact. "I think there's a real legacy here," says Deborah Seligsohn, director of the China program at the World Resources Institute.
Still, the recent gains won't overshadow Beijing's chronic water shortage. According to Probe International, an environmental group, the city's supply of water relative to its population is among the smallest of any of the world's major cities. Nationwide, China's available water supply per person is one-fourth the world average. Government water officials say the biggest segment of demand comes from residential use. Probe International says residential use increased 10 times between 1975 and 2005.
Some conservationists have expressed skepticism about Beijing's efforts. Probe International alleges Beijing has tapped deep groundwater supplies half a mile underground that are hard to replenish and should be reserved for emergencies.
But officials have denied that. "For Beijing during the Olympic Games, there is no development or exploration of deep groundwater," Vice Minister of Water Resources Hu Siyi said at a news conference.
In 2001, the government announced a $60 billion project to divert water from the Yangtze River basin to Beijing and the surrounding region to supply more water. One section is supposed to be completed by 2010 to bring water to Beijing. That extra water is meant to ease reliance on the depleted aquifer.
But environmentalists say big conservation efforts are still necessary. "If you don't do that, the diverted water won't be enough to fill the gap," says Ma Jun, founder of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121986665108677159.html?mod=rss_whats_news_asia
China Conservation Efforts Aid Aquifer Levels
By SHAI OSTER
August 28, 2008; Page A8
BEIJING -- Underground water levels in Beijing are rising this year, reversing a nearly decadelong decline, in part because of conservation efforts tied to the Olympics.
Aquifer levels in the Chinese capital have risen about half a meter this year, after having fallen about one meter each year since 1999 due to drought. The shortage had forced the city to dig ever-deeper wells, which provide the bulk of its municipal water.
The increase comes despite warnings from environmentalists that the Olympics would contribute to a greater strain on Beijing's water resources, with water being diverted from neighboring regions to supply everything from competition venues to the 40 million ornamental flowers around the city.
The government has rejected those admonitions. Officials say the water supply has benefited from unusually plentiful summer rains as well as decreasing demand and greater water recycling that the government pushed as part Beijing's efforts toward a "Green Olympics." Overall, water consumption fell to less than 3.4 billion cubic meters last year, from 4.04 billion cubic meters in 2000, officials say. Waste-water treatment rates have passed 90% as the city rolled out new treatment plants in time for the Games.
The data suggest that some of the environmental-protection efforts for the Olympics could have a lasting impact. "I think there's a real legacy here," says Deborah Seligsohn, director of the China program at the World Resources Institute.
Still, the recent gains won't overshadow Beijing's chronic water shortage. According to Probe International, an environmental group, the city's supply of water relative to its population is among the smallest of any of the world's major cities. Nationwide, China's available water supply per person is one-fourth the world average. Government water officials say the biggest segment of demand comes from residential use. Probe International says residential use increased 10 times between 1975 and 2005.
Some conservationists have expressed skepticism about Beijing's efforts. Probe International alleges Beijing has tapped deep groundwater supplies half a mile underground that are hard to replenish and should be reserved for emergencies.
But officials have denied that. "For Beijing during the Olympic Games, there is no development or exploration of deep groundwater," Vice Minister of Water Resources Hu Siyi said at a news conference.
In 2001, the government announced a $60 billion project to divert water from the Yangtze River basin to Beijing and the surrounding region to supply more water. One section is supposed to be completed by 2010 to bring water to Beijing. That extra water is meant to ease reliance on the depleted aquifer.
But environmentalists say big conservation efforts are still necessary. "If you don't do that, the diverted water won't be enough to fill the gap," says Ma Jun, founder of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.
China Water: September 1, 2008: Mekong flooding and China.
The Mekong River is a major river that flows from central China into Vietnam and southeast Asia.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/mekong-carries-the-runoff-from-chinas-superpower-status/1259175.aspx
Mekong carries the runoff from China's superpower status
MICHAEL RICHARDSON
1/09/2008 9:55:00 AM
China says it remains a developing country despite an impressively rapid rise in the league of global power. By some measures, it is now the world's third biggest economy and second largest exporter. However gauged, China is clearly a nation with increasing impact and influence, especially if you live in nearby South-East Asia.
So it comes as no surprise that China is blamed these days for local troubles almost as ritualistically as the United States, the superpower China says it will never emulate.
The latest finger pointing at China comes in the wake of devastating floods in parts of northern Thailand and Laos after the Mekong, South-East Asia's largest river, overflowed its banks, inundating villages and rice fields, and leaving a swath of destruction that will cost many millions of dollars to repair.
The water level on August 15 at Vientiane, the capital of Laos on the banks of the Mekong, was the highest since records began in 1913. Although it has dropped since then, low-lying regions in Cambodia and the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam are bracing themselves for similar damage as the floodwaters move downstream.
Some Thais hit by the floods, as well as non-governmental organisations campaigning against dam building, say that water released from the reservoirs of three big Chinese dams on the upper reaches of the Mekong swelled the runoff from a tropical storm and heavy monsoon rain across northern Laos and China's southern Yunnan Province early last month.
But the Mekong River Commission, in a statement last week, pointed out that the volume of releasable water held by the three Chinese hydro-power dams to generate electricity was too small to have been a significant factor in the flooding. The commission, established by the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in 1995 at the end of a long period of conflict in the region, helps to coordinate management of the Mekong Basin in South-East Asia.
As the world's 12th longest river, the Mekong runs through or between six countries China, Burma and the four commission member states. Although the Mekong starts high in China's Qinghai-Tibetan plateau and flows through China for more than one-third of its total length of over 4300km, China is not a commission member.
Nor is reclusive Burma. They are ''dialogue partners'' who meet commission members from time to time and share only some information about their respective sections of the river.
The commission says that the combined storage capacity of the three Chinese dams on the upper section of the Mekong is less than one cubic kilometre. It adds that only a small part of this could have been released as the floodwaters in the area accumulated between August 8, when the tropical storm struck, and August 12, when the flood peak in the Mekong was measured at Chiang Saen, in Thailand, where the commission has its most northerly monitoring station.
At Chiang Saen on that day, measurements showed an accumulated flood runoff volume for the month of 8.5 cubic kilometres, while further downsteam at Vientiane on 12 August it was 23 cubic kilometres, leading the commission to conclude that any release from the Chinese dams ''could not have been a significant factor in this natural flood event''.
While this may be true, Chinese dam construction on the upper reaches of the Mekong is a legitimate source of concern for downstream South-East Asian countries. To generate electricity, water has to be released to drive the turbines.
Their worry is that too much will be released in the wet season, contributing to flooding, and too little in the dry season, when the water is needed in South-East Asia.
This concern will be accentuated when China completes the fourth dam on its section of the Mekong by 2013.
This dam at Xiaowan will be 292m high, one of the world's tallest. It will generate over 4000 megawatts of electricity, the equivalent output of at least four nuclear power stations.
Its reservoir will impound water in a 190sqkm reservoir that Chinese officials say will hold 15 billion cubic metres of water, nearly five times the volume held by the three existing dams.
They say this will reduce the amount of water flowing into South-East Asia by 17 per cent during the flood season and increase the flow by 40 per cent in the dry season.
Four more dams are planned for the Mekong in Yunnan, one of which will have a storage capacity similar to Xiaowan. Just filling the Xiaowan dam's reservoir is estimated to take between five and 10 years, using half the upper Mekong's flow. Clearly, a cascade of dams on this scale will affect the amount and quality of water available to downstream states in South-East Asia.
Averaged over the year, only about 20 per cent of the water flowing into the lower section of the Mekong comes from China. However, Chinese policy is particularly important in the dry season, when the long stretch of the Mekong on its territory accounts for 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the water flow at the mouth of river in Vietnam, where it meets the South China Sea.
If China is serious when it promises a cooperative and mutually beneficial partnership with South-East Asia, it should join the Mekong River Commission as a full member, share all hydrological information with its neighbours and integrate its Yunnan dam planning into the development blueprint for the lower Mekong Basin.
This would strengthen commission efforts to develop and apply an integrated management plan for the whole of the Mekong River Basin, with multilateral as well as national interests in mind.
The writer, a former Asia editor of the International Herald Tribune, is an energy and security specialist at the Institute of South-East Asian Studies in Singapore.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/mekong-carries-the-runoff-from-chinas-superpower-status/1259175.aspx
Mekong carries the runoff from China's superpower status
MICHAEL RICHARDSON
1/09/2008 9:55:00 AM
China says it remains a developing country despite an impressively rapid rise in the league of global power. By some measures, it is now the world's third biggest economy and second largest exporter. However gauged, China is clearly a nation with increasing impact and influence, especially if you live in nearby South-East Asia.
So it comes as no surprise that China is blamed these days for local troubles almost as ritualistically as the United States, the superpower China says it will never emulate.
The latest finger pointing at China comes in the wake of devastating floods in parts of northern Thailand and Laos after the Mekong, South-East Asia's largest river, overflowed its banks, inundating villages and rice fields, and leaving a swath of destruction that will cost many millions of dollars to repair.
The water level on August 15 at Vientiane, the capital of Laos on the banks of the Mekong, was the highest since records began in 1913. Although it has dropped since then, low-lying regions in Cambodia and the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam are bracing themselves for similar damage as the floodwaters move downstream.
Some Thais hit by the floods, as well as non-governmental organisations campaigning against dam building, say that water released from the reservoirs of three big Chinese dams on the upper reaches of the Mekong swelled the runoff from a tropical storm and heavy monsoon rain across northern Laos and China's southern Yunnan Province early last month.
But the Mekong River Commission, in a statement last week, pointed out that the volume of releasable water held by the three Chinese hydro-power dams to generate electricity was too small to have been a significant factor in the flooding. The commission, established by the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in 1995 at the end of a long period of conflict in the region, helps to coordinate management of the Mekong Basin in South-East Asia.
As the world's 12th longest river, the Mekong runs through or between six countries China, Burma and the four commission member states. Although the Mekong starts high in China's Qinghai-Tibetan plateau and flows through China for more than one-third of its total length of over 4300km, China is not a commission member.
Nor is reclusive Burma. They are ''dialogue partners'' who meet commission members from time to time and share only some information about their respective sections of the river.
The commission says that the combined storage capacity of the three Chinese dams on the upper section of the Mekong is less than one cubic kilometre. It adds that only a small part of this could have been released as the floodwaters in the area accumulated between August 8, when the tropical storm struck, and August 12, when the flood peak in the Mekong was measured at Chiang Saen, in Thailand, where the commission has its most northerly monitoring station.
At Chiang Saen on that day, measurements showed an accumulated flood runoff volume for the month of 8.5 cubic kilometres, while further downsteam at Vientiane on 12 August it was 23 cubic kilometres, leading the commission to conclude that any release from the Chinese dams ''could not have been a significant factor in this natural flood event''.
While this may be true, Chinese dam construction on the upper reaches of the Mekong is a legitimate source of concern for downstream South-East Asian countries. To generate electricity, water has to be released to drive the turbines.
Their worry is that too much will be released in the wet season, contributing to flooding, and too little in the dry season, when the water is needed in South-East Asia.
This concern will be accentuated when China completes the fourth dam on its section of the Mekong by 2013.
This dam at Xiaowan will be 292m high, one of the world's tallest. It will generate over 4000 megawatts of electricity, the equivalent output of at least four nuclear power stations.
Its reservoir will impound water in a 190sqkm reservoir that Chinese officials say will hold 15 billion cubic metres of water, nearly five times the volume held by the three existing dams.
They say this will reduce the amount of water flowing into South-East Asia by 17 per cent during the flood season and increase the flow by 40 per cent in the dry season.
Four more dams are planned for the Mekong in Yunnan, one of which will have a storage capacity similar to Xiaowan. Just filling the Xiaowan dam's reservoir is estimated to take between five and 10 years, using half the upper Mekong's flow. Clearly, a cascade of dams on this scale will affect the amount and quality of water available to downstream states in South-East Asia.
Averaged over the year, only about 20 per cent of the water flowing into the lower section of the Mekong comes from China. However, Chinese policy is particularly important in the dry season, when the long stretch of the Mekong on its territory accounts for 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the water flow at the mouth of river in Vietnam, where it meets the South China Sea.
If China is serious when it promises a cooperative and mutually beneficial partnership with South-East Asia, it should join the Mekong River Commission as a full member, share all hydrological information with its neighbours and integrate its Yunnan dam planning into the development blueprint for the lower Mekong Basin.
This would strengthen commission efforts to develop and apply an integrated management plan for the whole of the Mekong River Basin, with multilateral as well as national interests in mind.
The writer, a former Asia editor of the International Herald Tribune, is an energy and security specialist at the Institute of South-East Asian Studies in Singapore.
China Water: September 1, 2008: Flood alert in Wuhan, Hubei.
There's a flood alert in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province along the banks of the Yangtze River.
http://www.china.org.cn/environment/news/2008-09/01/content_16367089.htm
Central Chinese city on high flood alert
More than 600 people are carrying out round-the-clock patrols of dikes along the Yangtze River in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, as the water level of the country's longest river rises.
Torrential rains had been lashing the province since August 28 in central China's Hubei Province, leaving four people dead and three others missing. The rain had affected the lives of 4.07 million people and destroyed crops in 35 counties across the province.
Torrential rains had been lashing the province since August 28 in central China's Hubei Province, leaving four people dead and three others missing. The rain had affected the lives of 4.07 million people and destroyed crops in 35 counties across the province.
The water level was 24.17 meters on Sunday, the highest this year, and was approaching the 25-meter line that marks the need to start implementing flood control plans, according to the Wuhan flood control headquarters.
The water level of three major medium-sized rivers in the city surpassed their danger lines on Sunday because of continuous rain.
The level of the Daoshui River was 29.20 meters, 1.2 meter above the danger line. The figure was 29.6 meters at the Jushui River, 60 cm above the danger level and 28.18 meters at the Fuhuan River, 2.18 meters above the danger line.
Torrential rains had been lashing the province since Thursday, leaving four people dead and three others missing.
The rain had affected the lives of 4.07 million people and destroyed crops in 35 counties across the province, a spokesman for the provincial civil affairs department said on Saturday.
http://www.china.org.cn/environment/news/2008-09/01/content_16367089.htm
Central Chinese city on high flood alert
More than 600 people are carrying out round-the-clock patrols of dikes along the Yangtze River in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, as the water level of the country's longest river rises.
Torrential rains had been lashing the province since August 28 in central China's Hubei Province, leaving four people dead and three others missing. The rain had affected the lives of 4.07 million people and destroyed crops in 35 counties across the province.
Torrential rains had been lashing the province since August 28 in central China's Hubei Province, leaving four people dead and three others missing. The rain had affected the lives of 4.07 million people and destroyed crops in 35 counties across the province.
The water level was 24.17 meters on Sunday, the highest this year, and was approaching the 25-meter line that marks the need to start implementing flood control plans, according to the Wuhan flood control headquarters.
The water level of three major medium-sized rivers in the city surpassed their danger lines on Sunday because of continuous rain.
The level of the Daoshui River was 29.20 meters, 1.2 meter above the danger line. The figure was 29.6 meters at the Jushui River, 60 cm above the danger level and 28.18 meters at the Fuhuan River, 2.18 meters above the danger line.
Torrential rains had been lashing the province since Thursday, leaving four people dead and three others missing.
The rain had affected the lives of 4.07 million people and destroyed crops in 35 counties across the province, a spokesman for the provincial civil affairs department said on Saturday.
China Water: September 1, 2008.
As mentioned previously, I've started a new job and that's taking much of my time.
I have not though, abandoned the China Water Blog and in fact spent some time this weekend reading up on aquifers and the water cycle in order to get better background on this problem in Chna.
So, now, for the moment, a few updates and news of interest.
I have not though, abandoned the China Water Blog and in fact spent some time this weekend reading up on aquifers and the water cycle in order to get better background on this problem in Chna.
So, now, for the moment, a few updates and news of interest.
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