Fearing a historic drought, China is considering building a dam for the country’s largest freshwater lake, but faces significant controversy.
Environmental advocates warn that constructing a dam on Poyang Lake—home to over half a million migratory birds during winter—will threaten the fragile ecosystem in the area. Conservationist Zhang Daqian stated that if the plan goes ahead, a 3,000-meter dam spanning one of the lake’s channels will sever its connection with the Yangtze River, turning Poyang into an “extinct lake.”
Over the past 70 years, China has built more than 50,000 dams in the Yangtze River basin, including the Three Gorges Dam, despite opposition from environmentalists. During the same period, at least 70% of the wetlands along Asia’s longest river have disappeared, according to data from China’s Ministry of Environment.
When the Poyang Dam project was initially proposed, fierce criticism from ecologists led to its dismissal. However, as droughts have become more frequent and severe due to climate change, the project has been revived.
Poyang Lake. (Video: Sharjah24 News)
Poyang Lake supplies water to 4.8 million residents of Jiangxi Province. Local authorities claim that building the dam will help conserve water, irrigate more farmland, and improve waterway traffic.
In a normal rainy season, Poyang Lake can be three times larger than Los Angeles. Its mudflats are a crucial feeding ground in winter for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds that fly south to escape the cold, including the critically endangered Siberian crane, whose population has dwindled to about 4,000.
This year’s drought is the worst in 70 years, causing Poyang Lake to enter the dry season three months earlier than usual. Nevertheless, hundreds of birds still gathered at the remaining small pools of water in the cracked lake bed when AFP reporters visited a sanctuary in Yingtan County, Jiangxi Province, in early November.
“The migratory birds are still arriving at Poyang, as this is their familiar winter home,” shared a staff member surnamed Chen at the sanctuary. “But there are no fish or shrimp for them to eat. Many birds are moving to nearby fields, and farmers are being asked to leave some unharvested rice for them.”
The worst drought in 70 years has caused Poyang Lake to enter the dry season earlier than usual. (Photo: AFP)
It is unclear at what stage the Poyang Dam project currently is. Both local authorities and China’s Ministry of Environment have not responded to questions posed by AFP.
Lu Xixi, a geography professor at the National University of Singapore, stated that if they proceed, the project will disrupt the natural flow of the lake with the Yangtze River, threatening the tidal flats where birds forage. The loss of natural water circulation could also affect Poyang Lake’s ability to remove nutrients, increasing the risk of algal blooms, which could disrupt the food chain.
The dam could even impact another critically endangered species, the Yangtze River dolphin, of which only about 1,000 remain in the wild. During drought periods, dolphins take refuge in the same channel that the dam is expected to cut through, a ranger who has patrolled the lake for over a month told AFP.
According to the Beijing-based conservation group Friends of Nature, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) published in May did not comprehensively study whether the dam’s construction would affect dolphin migration.
“Without comprehensive scientific evidence and without addressing environmental risks, the project should not proceed,” the organization emphasized in a statement.
