The Jinghong Hydropower Station's first generating unit went into operation last Thursday, according to a Xinhua report. The 108-meter high dam in southern Yunnan's Xishuangbanna prefecture is the third of 15 planned for the Lancang River (澜沧江), which is known as the Mekong after flowing out of China.

The Jinghong Hydropower Station joins the already operational Manwan and Dachaoshan power stations as the central government is preparing to build 12 more dams on the Lancang generating a total of 25.2 million kilowatts.

The 12.3 billion yuan (US$1.76 billion) station at Jinghong is projected to have a total installed capacity of 1.75 million kilowatts upon completion.

According to Xinhua, "The project is a key part of the country's strategy to develop its vast western region and send electricity from there to the more populated eastern area."

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Tags: Dachaoshan, dams, energy, environment, hydropower, Jinghong, Lancang River, Manwan, Mekong River, Xishuangbanna

Thai authorities are reporting that three Chinese policemen suffered injuries from a gun and knife fight with Myanmar-based drug smugglers while patrolling the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle area, according to Chinese media reports.

The Chinese police boat was patrolling the Mekong in accordance with a regional agreement focused on fighting drug smuggling in the area. According to the Thai navy, a boat with approximately six people on board approached the Chinese police vessel and suddenly began to open fire.

According to reports, the alleged drug smugglers proceeded to jump on the police boat, shooting and stabbing three Chinese police officers during a five-minute conflict before jumping back onto their boat and speeding away. The three injured officers were rushed to a hospital in Chiang Rai, Thailand afterward.

It is believed that the attack on the Chinese police boat was organized by a local drug smuggling organization that was trying to protect its drug transport route on the Mekong. The Chinese police were reportedly patrolling the area on an inside tip.

Myanmar is the second-largest producer of opium in the world, trailing only Afghanistan. According to a United Nations report released last October, Myanmar experienced a 46 percent increase in opium production in 2007 – after a 10-year period in which opium production had declined each year.

Primary reasons cited by the report for increased opium production in Myanmar – which is ruled by a military junta – include official corruption, high-level conspiracy and ineffective border management. In addition to increased opium production, Myanmar in recent years has become a major producer of amphetamine, producing several hundred million pills yearly, the majority of which are smuggled into Thailand and China.

Tags: amphetamine, drug trafficking, Golden Triangle, Lancang River, Mekong River, Myanmar, opium, Thailand

The combination of this year's dry season with the effects of two dams in Yunnan has lowered parts of the Mekong river to water levels under one meter, according to a Bangkok Post report.

The low water levels have slowed cargo movement along the Mekong - known in Yunnan as the Lancang River - to a snail's pace. Cargo boats which once took three days to travel between the ports in southern Yunnan's Jinghong and Chiang Saen in northern Thailand's Chiang Rai province are now taking one month.

The effects of this year's dry season on the Mekong are compounded by the two recently completed dams at Manwan and Dachaoshan along the Lancang River in Yunnan. There are plans for six more hydroelectric dams to be built on the river, the next one scheduled for completion in 2010.

Although water levels on the Mekong are expected to rise again after this month, it is uncertain if an annual drying of the Mekong can be avoided. Aside from becoming nearly impassable for boats, lower fish counts are being recorded on the river, which sustains the livelihood of millions of farmers and villagers in Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

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On December 29 two ships carrying a total of 300 tons of refined oil from Thailand arrived in Jinghong in southern Yunnan, marking the initiation of a scheme to transport oil from Southeast Asia, according to a China.org report.

The oil transport route is a result of an agreement signed in March 2006 by China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand to cooperate on the shipping of oil along the Mekong, which connects Yunnan with the three Southeast Asian countries as well as Vietnam and Cambodia. In China the river is known as the Lancang Jiang or Lancang River.

The initial accord to ship oil to China via the Mekong allowed for a monthly shipping quota of 1,200 tons of refined oil, but the quota has since been raised after China established an emergency response team to monitor oil transport on the river and respond to any accidents.

The route is a rather risky one for the countries on the Mekong as any spills or accidents would flow southward, affecting the environment and economies of the five countries downriver from Yunnan. China is expecting to receive 200,000 tons of refined oil via the new route, which makes it possible to circumvent shipping oil through the pirate-infested Malacca Strait.

The shipping route is an estimated 200 yuan/ton cheaper to ship to Yunnan than existing land routes and will also make it cheaper to transport oil to Sichuan and Guizhou provinces. Engineers are already exploring ways to increase the river's oil transport capacity.

The Mekong was opened to commercial navigation in the early 1990s and has developed into a major tourism, ore and commodities transport route, with more than US$1.3 billion in goods traveling the river in the past five years.

Southwest China's increasing thirst for oil is a driving force behind projects such as this new river route that are aimed at increasing the Chinese hinterland's access to energy sources.

One of the largest of these projects is a planned US$2 billion pipeline from Myanmar that will connect Kunming to the Andaman Sea port of Sittwe. Scheduled for completion in 2009, the pipeline will be able to transport oil and gas from the Andaman Sea as well as oil and gas shipped to the port from the Middle East and Africa. As with the Mekong project, one of the major advantages of the Sittwe-Kunming pipeline is cutting the Malacca Strait out of the picture.

Tags: Jinghong, Lancang River, Mekong River, oil

The Lancang River in Xishuangbanna

Defending the dams
A report issued today by Xinhua states that Southeast Asian
countries downstream of the Lancang/Mekong River will not feel any influence from the hydropower stations built on the river, which is known as the Mekong in Southeast Asia. There are hydropower stations on the Lancang - as it is known in China - at Tianshengqiao, Manwan and Dachao Mountain.

Yunnan University Asia International River Center chief scientist He Daming states that it is 'unscientific' to say that what happens upstream on the Lancang in China influences all of the downstream areas of the Mekong. Mr. He continues, saying that assessment of dam construction on internationally flowing rivers is 'very complicated' and warned against trying to politicize the issue.

Yunnan University Natural Resources, Environment and Geosciences Institute expert You Weihong also downplays the effects of existing dams on the Lancang, saying that the drying up of the Mekong and its tributaries north of Vientiane, Laos is a result of climate change.

Despite the 80-km benzene slick that flowed into Russia from China last year, it might be reassuring to Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia to read that China is going to such lengths to allay concerns about the future of the waters of the Lancang/Mekong.

Dianchi 'spill'
That reassured feeling probably won't last long after reading this Xinhua report describing a dredge charged with cleaning up superpolluted Dianchi Lake that was actually dumping used oil into the lake, creating an oil slick 100 mu (18,200 square meters) in area. Located on the southwestern edge of Kunming, Dianchi is China's sixth-largest freshwater lake.

Poor Dianchi. GoKunming's older Kunming friends often recall how they swam in the lake in their youth. Now one cannot get
close to the lake without being overpowered by the stench of pollution and untreated sewage that is being pumped into
it. Swim in Dianchi? Forget about it. Few and poor are the locals who dare eat fish caught in the lake. In this site's humble opinion, Kunming's success at transforming itself into a modern international city should be tied to the results (and sincerity) of its attempts to clean up Dianchi. It's got a long, long way to go.

(Image: My Life in Kunming)

Tags: dams, Dianchi Lake, environment, Lancang River, Mekong River, Southeast Asia