Alarmed by unprecedented drought in China, authorities have relaunched a controversial dam project on the country’s largest freshwater lake.
But environmentalists warn that this construction on Lake Poyang – winter stopover for more than half a million migratory birds – could affect this fragile ecosystem and the endangered species it shelters.
China is currently chairing the UN negotiations on biodiversity in Montreal, presented as the “last real chance” to be able to save species and their habitats from irreversible destruction caused by human activities.
The case of Lake Poyang, which is slowly recovering after seeing its area reduced by more than two-thirds, illustrates the difficulties faced by environmentalists in China.
Conservationist Zhang Daqian says that if it goes ahead, the proposed 3,000-meter-long dam on a channel of the lake would cut it off from the Yangtze River, “making Poyang a dead lake”.
China has built more than 50,000 dams in the Yangtze basin, including the Three Gorges, in 70 years, despite strong opposition from environmentalists. Over the same period, at least 70% of the river’s marshes have disappeared, according to the Ministry of the Environment.
Originally presented in 2016, the project was suspended after complaints from environmentalists. But with more frequent and extreme droughts in the region due to climate change, things have changed. The 2022 drought was the worst in 70 years, with the region entering the dry season three months earlier than usual.
The Poyang provides water to the 4.8 million inhabitants of Jiangxi province. For the local government, this infrastructure would conserve water, irrigate more agricultural land and improve navigation.
An environmental impact study released in May gave experts just two weeks to review 1,200 pages of documents and file complaints.
Winter visitors
The lake’s mudflats are the main source of winter food for hundreds of thousands of birds fleeing the cold weather further north each fall. Among them is the critically endangered Siberian crane, whose population has been reduced to around 4,000 birds.
Hundreds of birds gathered in early November around small pools of water on the cracked bed of the lake, AFP found in Yongxiu county.
“Migratory birds keep coming to Poyang because it’s their usual winter refuge,” Chen, an employee, describes, gazing at the dry expanse littered with empty mussel shells and fish skeletons.
“But there are no fish or shrimp to feed them. Lots of birds flock to the nearby fields and farmers have been asked to leave some of their unharvested rice for the birds,” he explains.
Authorities pumped water from nearby reservoirs to form small watering holes for the birds.
“There is no conflict [entre les habitants et les oiseaux] because migratory birds are nationally protected animals and people will not harm them,” He Fangjin, an employee at another park, told AFP.
At nearby Zhupao Hill, a popular bird-watching site, some 90,000 migrating birds were spotted from October to early December, compared to around 62,000 birds at the same time in 2021.
Damage to the ecosystem
Neither the local authorities nor the environment ministry answered AFP’s questions about the status of the project, in particular its possible timetable.
If it materializes, this dam will disrupt the natural movements of ebb and flow with the Yangtze, threatening the foreshore on which the birds feed, fears Lu Xixi, professor of geography at the National University of Singapore.
The dam could also harm another critically endangered species that has taken up residence in the waters of the lake: the flightless porpoise of the Yangtze, which has only 1,000 individuals left.
During the drought, the porpoises took refuge in the channel that the dam would cut, a ranger from the Beijing Environmental Protection League told AFP.
“Without thorough scientific evidence and [sans] elimination of environmental risks, the project should not be continued,” the Beijing-based NGO Friends of Nature said in a statement, urging a thorough assessment to determine the potential consequences on porpoise migration.