Further exploitation of the Yangtze River's upper reaches for hydroelectricity will mean inevitable damage to the waterway's ecosystem, experts warned yesterday.

Speaking to the media in Beijing, the chief engineer of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission said pressure was growing on China's longest river to produce more power.

"Lobbying for more projects is becoming more and more fierce due to the increasingly short supply of electricity throughout China," Ma said.

"The Yangtze River has to face up to some new issues after the completion of the Three Gorges Project, the last hydropower station constructed on the middle reaches of the river."

Another official with the Water Resources Commission, Wong Lida, warned that dams had a significant effect on fish living in the river.

He said: "The dam projects influence the reproduction of fish in the Yangtze like the Chinese sturgeon. We must find solutions to these problems."

However, with the Yangtze river valley covering almost 20 per cent of all China's territory, fish are not the river's only beneficiaries whose futures are threatened.

To find better solutions to the lurking problems, a Yangtze Forum is scheduled to be held on April 16 in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, to further raise public awareness of the need to protect the river, Ma announced.

Jointly sponsored by 26 parties including the world Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), China's water resources, forestry administration and environmental protection authorities, the forum will aim at keeping the Yangtze a healthy river while allowing for the needs of the 420 million people who live along its banks.

But sounding a note of warning, Ma said: "Pathological changes are occurring along sections of the 6,300-kilometre long river with conditions getting worse than ever before."

Today, the amount of sewage being poured into the river is increasing year on year with 24 billion tons of effluent being pumped into the increasingly dirty waters. Lakes and wetlands along the river have receded due to rapid urbanization and the reclamation of marshlands while snail fever has reached epidemic proportions in many areas.

Source: China Daily