River blocked for China's new gigantic hydropower project

Photo taken on Dec. 28, 2008 shows the construction of Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station, which is the third largest of its kind in China. (Chinese media/Qin Qing)
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SHUIFU, Yunnan, Dec. 28 (Chinese media) -- The Jinsha River in south China was blocked on Sunday to make way for construction of a new hydropower project on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

At a cost of 43.4 billion yuan (about 6.3 billion U.S. dollars), the Xiangjiaba Hydropower Project is expected to be completed by 2015. It will be able to generate 30.7 billion kw hours of electricity a year.

"Electricity generated by hydropower stations will mainly be sold to China's eastern, southern and central regions," said Li Yong'an, general manager of the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corporation. "Sichuan and Yunnan provinces will also benefit from it."

Workers cheer for the damming of the Jinsha River in the construction of the Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station which is the third largest of its kind in China. (Chinese media/Qin Qing)
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In addition to providing power, the project will play

a role in flood control and farmland irrigation.

About 125,100 people from three counties of Yunnan

Province and three counties of Sichuan Province have been resettled to make way

for the project.

The Xiangjiaba project is one of a series of

hydropower plants China plans to build on the Jinsha River to supply electricity

to its economically more developed coastal regions.

The 2,290-kilometer-long Jinsha River, a tributary of

Yangtze River, originates in Tanggula Range and flows through Qinghai, Tibet,

Yunnan, and Sichuan.

Water is mostly stored in the river's middle and

lower reaches where China plans to build 12 hydropower stations to share a

59.08- million-kilowatts installed capacity.

Photo taken on Dec. 28, 2008 shows the last phase of damming the Jinsha River in the construction of the Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station which is the third largest of its kind in China.(Chinese media/Chen Kai)
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Photo taken on Dec. 28, 2008 shows the last phase of damming the Jinsha River in the construction of the Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station which is the third largest of its kind in China. The damming of the river was finished at 11:26 a.m. on Sunday.(Chinese media/Qin Qing)
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Workers cheer for the damming of the Jinsha River in the construction of the Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station which is the third largest of its kind in China.(Chinese media/Chen Kai)
Photo Gallery