China to build almost 3,000 kilometers of dams on Amur River
KHABAROVSK. Aug 4 (Interfax) - China plans to build dams with a total length of 2,955 kilometers on the Amur, on the Amur River's tributary, the Sungari (Songhua), and on the Nongjiang River (the Songhua's largest tributary) under a project to regulate the flow of the three rivers, Zhang Chunjiao, chairperson of the Applied Economy Association in the Heilongjiang province, told Interfax.
"The new and upgraded dams will be 2,537 kilometers long," she said.
The dams are expected to guarantee safety to 10.74 million residents on an area of 4.2 million hectares recurrently flooded. In various estimates the construction will last three to five years.
"The project envisions the commissioning of 644 facilities intended for land reclamation and to build ponds, including 278 new, modernized and repaired ones," she said.
Viktor Bardyuk, deputy natural resources minister of the Khabarovsk territory bordering on China along the Amur River, told Interfax that China had not informed the local authorities about the launch of the large-scale project.
"A warning must be issued before starting work at transborder facilities. A roadmap is to be drawn up in the future which the sides will use as reference data before starting projects on the Amur River. We will insist that China include bank stabilization work in the roadmap," he said.
"All populated areas must be protected, of course. However, the flood land must be vacant," he also said.
The government of the Khabarovsk territory hopes to be informed about the Chinese project in detail during a visit to Fuyouan of a Russian-Chinese working group for the protection and utilization of water facilities on August 26, Bardyuk said.
He said the Khabarovsk territorial government plans to make about 15 billion rubles available to build infrastructure for protecting 12 populated areas and facilities from floods.
The territorial government has issued warnings on many occasions against China's bank stabilization work which may cause the rivers' main channels to change their course and flood Russian populated areas.