News Commentary: "Emergency on the Nujiang River"? China often gets into trouble when building dams

>News Commentary: "Emergency on the Nu River"? China often gets blamed for building dams Phoenix Jiufeng The front page of the New York Times "China restarts the Nu River hydropower dam project, the Nu River is in emergency...

News Commentary: "The Nu River is in emergency"? China often gets blamed for building dams Phoenix Jiufeng The front page of the New York Times "China restarts the Nu River hydropower dam project, the Nu River is in emergency" falsely claimed that the Nu River hydropower project was a "disaster" with ulterior motives. Some overseas Chinese media followed suit without thinking, and World Weekly "China's hegemony in building dams is not a good neighbor?" " mentioned that "Last year, after eight years of construction, the Nuozhadu Dam on the Lancang River in Yunnan was put into operation to generate electricity. Several dams in the upper reaches of the Lancang River blocked water, resulting in insufficient water levels in the Mekong River." He even more arrogantly accused, "But China cannot be arrogant and ignore the water needs of neighboring countries and block all water sources with dams, otherwise it will cause public outrage." World Weekly seems to be only trying to be politically correct. It is unable to provide convincing facts and theoretical basis, and lacks rigorous logical reasoning, which violates the fairness and impartiality of the media. Theoretically speaking, the construction of the dam itself will not change the total runoff of the river. Dams with stronger flood storage capacity and a series of cascade dams can reduce peaks and delay floods. On the contrary, they will reduce downstream floods and increase the effective water supply of the river. An extreme example is seasonal rivers. When the rainy season comes and floods occur, people often can only look at the water and sigh, watching the precious fresh water flowing into the sea in vain and unable to use it; in the dry season, the floodplain area is barren of grass and filled with wind and sand. Even if the annual runoff of such a river is large, human beings will benefit only limitedly. If a dam is built to store floods during the rainy season to supplement water shortages during the dry season, while reducing the threat of rainy season floods downstream and generating clean energy, it is a mutually beneficial and win-win good thing. How could it end up blocking all water sources? To be honest, mankind does not yet have a technology that can block water sources. If the control during the initial water storage stage of the dam is unreasonable, the downstream flow may be reduced for a certain period of time. It would be arrogant and overbearing to only care about its own power generation without taking into account the interests of the downstream. However, even so, the water in the basin has not decreased at all, but the time period during which it flows has changed. Generally speaking, the role of dams has reduced the water level in the rainy season and increased the water level in the dry season, rather than generalizing the construction of hydropower stations to cause insufficient river water levels. Because the hydropower station itself does not consume water resources, it only changes the pattern of runoff. If the upstream and downstream cooperate, the hydropower station will definitely have more benefits than disadvantages for the effective use of water resources downstream. Of course, if the control of water resources is related to national strategic interests, it is another matter. Therefore, the fact that some countries are hyping China's hydropower construction is not a water resource utilization issue but a geopolitical issue. This is one of the political purposes of the New York Times' high-profile claim that "the Nu River is in urgent need." . The Colorado River, the second largest river in the United States, has an average annual runoff of 18.5 billion cubic meters, with a drop of less than 3,000 meters. It is not an international river with abundant runoff and a large drop. However, the United States has built five large hydropower stations along the river, with a water resource utilization rate of 89%, leaving 1.85 billion cubic meters of flow for downstream Mexico to prevent the estuary delta from drying up. The Nu River has a height of 4,840 meters in China, and its annual runoff is 70.3 billion cubic meters, more than three times that of the Colorado River. In the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Energy Development" of the State Council of China, five hydropower projects in Nujiang are included in the plan. The New York Times' "China restarts Nu River hydropower dam project, Nu River is in emergency" is to deliberately hype a hydropower project into a major international political issue. Regardless of why the New York Times did not complain about Mexico, which only received 10% of its water rights, many Americans know that the Glen Canyon Dam, the second tallest dam in the United States on the Colorado River, was almost blown up in the 1990s due to the hype of environmental protection organizations for the purpose of protecting fish resources. Fortunately, several consecutive years of basin droughts have made people realize the importance of water resources again, so the dam can be saved. In recent years, the problem of global warming has become increasingly serious, making clean energy even more precious. Fish need protection, and the earth needs protection even more. If the skin is not there, where will the hair be? Whether water conservancy projects should be constructed or not should be left to scientists to demonstrate. Artificial political hype is harmful to both upstream and downstream water resource utilization, as well as to the climate warming problem faced by all mankind. The public should respond to the malicious exaggeration by irresponsible media with a rational and scientific attitude.