China’s last wild river carries conflicting environmental hopes
Three great rivers rush through parallel canyons in the mountains of southwest China on their way to the coastal plains of Asia. At least 10 dams have been built on two of them, the Mekong and the Yangtze. The third remains wild: the remote, raging Nu, known as the Salween in Myanmar, where it empties into the Andaman Sea. No dam stands in the path of its turquoise waters. It is the last free-flowing river in China. “The dam is no good for the environment, so the government stopped it,” said Abao, a resident of Dongfeng Village, far up the valley. He recently visited the fifth site, upriver in Tibet, and said construction appeared to have halted there. But given past swings, residents said they were worried about work resuming.
