Global warming and extreme weather conditions have contributed
to the deterioration of almost half of the country's 87,000 aging
dams, a senior water official has said.
Many of the structures were built between the 1950s and 70s, and
their construction quality is quickly degrading.
"Roughly 37,000 dams across the country are in a dangerous
state," Deputy Water Resources Minister Jiao Yong told a national
teleconference organized by the State Council and broadcast live on
the government's website (www.gov.cn) on Tuesday.
Aside from the climate issue, the design and quality of some of
the dams was "restricted by the conditions of the times in which
they were built and they are therefore congenitally deficient", Jia
said.
He said the reservoirs "have become the weakest link and most
unstable factor in flood control", and made the government's
freshly announced three-year repair initiative particularly
challenging.
The central conference on agriculture in December ordered that
all major at-risk dams and reservoirs be repaired within three
years. But both the volume of work and problems with funding have
alarmed many government departments.
The Water Resources Ministry plans to repair 6,240 aging dams
over the three-year period.
"That means that our annual average workload will be 10 times more
than that between 1998 and 2006," Jia said, adding that the
forthcoming challenges are "unprecedented".
"Funding is key" to finishing the task on time, Vice-Premier Hui
Liangyu, who also heads the Office of State Flood Control and
Drought Relief Headquarters, said.
More than 2,300 of the most at-risk dams have been repaired
since 1998.
But while central government funding was 24.4 billion yuan
(US$3.37 billion) between 1998 and 2006, financial input from the
provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities was just 6.93
billion yuan, far less than 21.1 billion yuan that was needed, Hui
said.
He said 51 billion yuan is needed for the project, of which 27.7
billion yuan will come from the central government.
The rest should come from provincial authorities, he said.
The central government's contribution equates to more than 9.2
billion yuan a year over three years. Last year it spent about 6.4
billion yuan.
The National Reform and Development Commission has already
earmarked 5 billion yuan for the repair of large- and medium-sized
dams, Du Ying, its deputy chief, said.
The budget for small dams has yet to be set, but a source with
the Water Resources Ministry said it is "highly unlikely" it will
be 9 billion yuan.
(China Daily January 17, 2008)
