In an attempt to further cut the use of wood and fossil fuels, a
project to build more mini-hydropower plants is being boosted.
The plan is aimed at encouraging millions of farmers across China
to use the environmentally friendly energy and hopefully further
reduce the damage to forests and the eco-system.
The Ministry of
Water Resources which is behind the plan, is working on the
building of small-scale hydropower stations which can supply
electricity to rural areas, sources with the ministry confirmed
yesterday.
It
will mean 104 million people living in 886 counties across 25
provinces and autonomous regions will have an electricity supply to
meet their daily fuel needs. This far less polluting source of
energy will not only be a plus for the environment, but will boost
the rural economy through the development of township enterprises
and by-product processing.
The majority of rural residents affected live in areas where a
logging ban has been in effect since 1998. In these areas natural
forests with steep hill farmlands have been converted to woodland
to halt further water and soil erosion.
Over-logging, reclamation of steep hill areas and massive levels of
firewood cutting are the major factors that have resulted in the
destruction of these areas of forestry and vegetation cover,
experts say.
Although the logging ban, coupled with woodland reconstruction, has
brought many of these problems under control, the difficulties
caused by farmers continuing to burn wood remains an issue.
Annually, 5.6 million hectares of forests were burnt by about 112
million rural people who had no other source of fuel for cooking
and heating, according to statistics released by the ministry.
"This not only destroyed local eco-systems, but also seriously
polluted the environment," the latest official report stated.
In
2001 alone, 171 tons of twig bundles - the equivalent of about 228
million cubic metres of timber - were burned by farmers throughout
China, spelling a major consumption of the nation's forests.
A
group of experts headed by Xu Qianqing, academician of the Chinese
Academy of Engineering, urged the Ministry of Water Resources, at a
recent seminar held in Beijing, to launch the hydropower
project.
Electricity supplied by small hydropower stations is an effective
means of providing the basic daily fuel needs for farmers in remote
areas and also prevent worsening of the eco-environment, the
experts said.
Electricity from small-scale hydropower stations has become a
popular, renewable energy resource globally, they added.
China's exploitable hydropower potential is estimated to be about
87 million kilowatts, ranking it the largest in the world,
according to the Ministry of Water Resources, with potential in
western China's impoverished regions alone estimated at more than
58.2 million kilowatts, or 67 percent of China's total.
However, only 29 percent of China's hydropower resources have, to
date, been exploited, far less than in some developed countries.
While on the other hand, around 75 million rural people still have
no access to power.
Most of the potential resources are located in China's mountainous
areas and foothills, the key areas where substitute energy is vital
for protecting eco-systems from the ongoing destructive affects of
firewood cutting, the experts said.
(China
Daily October 10, 2002)