Abstract
Hydropower is a crucial part of China’s energy portfolio and will remain key to reducing the country’s future reliance on fossil fuels. Yet hydropower dams cause the displacement of individuals and communities who live near them, affecting homes, employment, and farmland. Our focus in this chapter is on population displacement on the Lancang River, the upstream segment of the Mekong in China’s Yunnan Province and the Tibet Autonomous Region. We base our analysis on several data sources: household surveys undertaken with rural villagers near four of the Lancang River dam sites; analysis of government and industry reports on energy production and river basin management; analysis of government plans and procedures to compensate displaced people; and published reports on the Miaowei Hydropower Project, the first dam on the Lancang for which resettlement was undertaken according to the new 16118 policy, which provides long-term compensation and other benefits to resettled households. This allows us to analyse how resettlement undertaken under the new policy regime differs from earlier hydropower projects. Our findings suggest that while government and industry efforts to minimise harm to displaced communities are improving, more consideration is needed on social impacts, property rights, and policy implementation by local authorities.
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Notes
- 1.
The lower reaches of the Mekong in Southeast Asia are also undergoing ambitious hydropower development. Two hydropower projects in Laos (Don Sahong and Xayaburi) are under construction. Nine other projects are in the planning or site preparation stages. China Huaneng Group, one of the country’s five major energy generation companies, is playing a major role in these efforts (see Grumbine et al. 2012; Mekong River Commission 2018).
- 2.
Compensation amounts were adjusted for inflation to 2010 RMB, using a consumer price index from the World Trade Organisation. Because of the political sensitivity surrounding resettlement compensation, only 122 households (of 729 in the survey sample) provided data on compensation amounts. Wang et al. (2013a) report higher compensation rates for resettlers at Manwan Dam, but their figures are based on a different sample. This underscores the difficulty of accurately calculating compensation under shifting policy regimes and amid political sensitivity.
- 3.
Average household incomes reported in our survey are notably higher than government estimates, which reported annual household incomes in our study counties as approximately 19,000 RMB (Yunnan Statistical Bureau 2011). This is because we calculated income in a more comprehensive way, including agricultural sales minus the costs of inputs; the value of agricultural and livestock production for household consumption; wage labour; self-employment income; and government-provided poverty-alleviation subsidies.
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The authors acknowledge funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, grant 0826752.
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Tilt, B., Chen, Z. (2021). Population Resettlement for Hydropower Development in the Lancang River Basin: An Evolving Policy Framework and Its Implications for Local People. In: Rousseau, JF., Habich-Sobiegalla, S. (eds) The Political Economy of Hydropower in Southwest China and Beyond. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59361-2_5
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