China's Nu River Hangs in the Balance, Part 2

By: 
Katy Yan

This is part two of a three-part blog describing my recent trip to the Nu River valley in April 2011. All names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees. Part 1 sets the scene and Part 3 discusses the Nu River's future.

"We will not move"

Village near the proposed Fugong Dam site
Village near the proposed Fugong Dam site
Katy Yan

What made the long drives along windy roads bearable were the stops we made to talk to the local people. While none of the dams in Yunnan have been built, many villages have heard of them, and one village has already been relocated to state-built housing.

In a small town of 2,000 people six kilometers from the Fugong dam site, a young villager took us on a tour of his childhood haunts and current home. Members of the Lisu ethnic group, She Jian and his wife warmly welcomed us into their courtyard, complete with chickens, a pig, and traditional bows and arrows on the wall.

This village would be submerged by Fugong Dam
This village would be submerged by Fugong Dam
Katy Yan

When I asked if they had heard of the proposed dams, She Jian said, yes, that engineers had come to drill holes in 2006 and 2007 but didn't tell any of the villagers that they were going to build a dam. (Ironically, many people like She Jian only found out about the dams from visiting foreigners and students doing their PhD dissertations on the Nu River dams.) Many of the workers on the drilling project were from his village and were never paid for their work.

I asked what they thought of the dams. Without any hesitation, She Jian says, "We don't support the dam. The village doesn't support it either...We will not move." When asked why, he said, "We heard from people who had been resettled by a nearby dam on the Malao River to a town further south. The weather there was warmer and they were forced to grow export crops like bananas and coffee. Many later returned home."

According to She Jian, their village has its own collective small hydro station and gets all of its electricity from it, with about 20% exported. The village also depends on the Nu River for fishing, both for sustenance and for selling at the local markets.

Ghost town

On our last day in the Nu valley, we stopped at the controversial resettlement village of New Xiaoshaba near the Liuku Dam site, which had started site work in 2008. We met with Xiong Di and his mother, two of the last holdouts at Old Xiaoshaba village, at their home overlooking the fields and demolished houses of the rest of their village.

Abandoned and demolished at Old Xiaoshaba Village
Abandoned and demolished at Old Xiaoshaba Village
Katy Yan

Because of Liuku Dam, their entire village (apart from their two small houses) has been involuntarily resettled to New Xiaoshaba. They told us how they've spent the last five years struggling to keep their home. The markers for Liuku Dam cut right through one of their houses.

Xiong took us to New Xiaoshaba, where housing was clean on the outside but poorly constructed on the inside (cracks, leaks, and mold dominate the interior decorating), and where people are now forced to open up stores and abandon their farming lifestyle. According to Xiong, few have a sustainable source of income and many spend their days playing cards and idling away resettlement money. According to China's 2006 resettlement and compensation law (see Brown and Xu, 2010), all farmers must receive farmland after being displaced. This did not materialize at New Xiaoshaba, and many villagers continue to return to work the land at Old Xiaoshaba.

In the final installment, one final visit to a village reveals the complex nature of China's dams.