Dam lessons from Yu Xiaogang

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Three weeks after Chinese expert dam watcher, activist and 2009 Ramon Magsaysay awardee Yu Xiaogang left the Philippines, the dam broke, so to speak.

I wish I had asked Yu all the dam questions that are plaguing us now. I wish he were here for the Senate hearings and the forum debates to witness the dam-damning, blame-throwing, finger-pointing and breast-beating.

He could listen to the torrent of words from government officials, soothsayers, feel-gooders (they announce on TV how very good they feel after doing acts of charity even while the flood victims continue to feel bad) and what-have-you that all but drowned us again after the two great catastrophes of the past weeks that killed almost 700 (by drowning, landslides, leptospirosis, etc.) and destroyed lives and livelihoods.

There is a lot we could learn from Yu and I wish we could call him back now. Yu has not only kept an eye on China’s 85,000 dams, he has done much to prevent wanton construction that could lead to destruction. There is also a lot that he could learn from the recent tragedy that visited us.

Macli-ing Dulag, slain tribal chief and Cordillera icon who fought mightily against the proposed Chico River Dam almost 30 years ago that could have destroyed large portions of Kalinga ancestral lands, would have loved to meet Yu but the Kalinga brave and martyr was born too early and shed his blood too soon. (Macli-ing was killed in 1981.)

The Philippines does not even have 100 dams and suddenly we are deathly afraid of them. But we have reason to be. I shudder when I think of the deadly few that we have.

The RM Award Foundation honored Yu, 58, last August “for fusing the knowledge and tools of social science with a deep sense of social justice, in assisting dam-affected communities in China to shape the development projects that impact their natural environment and their lives.”

I interviewed Yu and wrote a front page story (“RM Award for China’s water guardians,” Aug. 30). The other water guardian was Ma Jun, 41, a Chinese journalist who used the power of information in addressing China’s water crisis.

While he was here, Yu was invited to speak in several gatherings and to share his knowledge and experience of dams. Well, three weeks after he left, the dam “broke,” na nga. For besides the unprecedented amount of rain that fell on our lives (so we blame climate change which is also our doing), there were the dams that released and sent oceans of water hurtling into villages, towns and cities.

Dams, the threat they pose and the havoc they have caused are the primary concerns of Yu, founder and director of Green Watershed. Begun in 2002, this non-profit NGO developed an integrated watershed management program in the Lashi Lake area in Yunnan. Dam projects, supposedly the harbingers of progress, could destroy lives, livelihood, the living habitat of human communities and wildlife and, just as important, heritage sites.

And once in operation, dams could be destructive too, as what happened in the Philippines’ case when typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” struck. We’re still reeling from too much water and now typhoon “Ramil” is roaring towards us. Now all eyes and ears are on the dams.

Yu grew up in Yunnan and he remembers the mystifying beauty of the place. Yunnan Province is home to three of the world’s largest rivers: the Nu, Yangtze and Mekong. China’s misty lakes and rivers that one beholds in paintings are now dimmed when one thinks of the staggering number of dams in China—85,000 at last count—or 46 percent of what the entire world has.

Yu said that 30 years ago dams were built for agriculture. Then they were built for electricity, that is, for profit. There are now so many dams in China, Yu said, and for some, the market has not even been identified. Dams for dams’ sake or for some imagined future needs are not the way to go especially if their environmental impact has not been assessed, Yu stressed. That’s something we should bear in mind.

It was while doing post-graduate research on the impact of Manwan hydroelectric project that Yu discovered and documented its adverse impact on the area’s inhabitants. Yu had stirred a hornet’s nest, causing the government to investigate and do something about the dam’s destructive effects.

In the Lashi Lake area in Yunnan, a dam project diverted 40 percent of the lake’s water, flooded farmlands and destroyed the people’s livelihood. Green Watershed organized the Watershed Management Committee and mobilized the people to engage in irrigation, fishery, microcredit and training in watershed and protection and biodiversity conservation.

The efforts bore fruit and the Lashi project became a model for participatory management. It even received a citation from the government. Encouraged, Yu embarked to do more in other dam sites. Green Watershed conducted research and forums and engaged mass media to help.

Green Watershed conducted public debates when the government announced the building of 13 dams on the Nu River. The dam would have displaced 50,000 people and affected a Unesco World Heritage nature site. China’s Premier We Jaibao put the plans on hold.

This year, China’s Three Gorges Dam, touted to be the mightiest in the world, is going to open. Where there used to be mightily raging or smoothly flowing rivers, there are now the monstrous structures that lord it over the waters. Hydroelectric power, a key to China’s mammoth energy needs, is what dams are primarily for.

To dam or not to dam? Does China, or any country for that matter, really need so many dams? What Yu insists on is that communities and ecosystems need not be sacrificed in the so-called altar of development.