
Amur without dams
In early 2004, another attempt was made to include new hydropower stations into the Amur state plans. This time the development of hydro potential was described in the Scheme of Integrated Use and Protection of Water Resources (SIUPWR). Despite the presence of letter «P» (protection), the document was a translation of previous SIUWR and considered regulation of the main channel of river Amur. At the same time, the scheme was built without taking into account environmental and
At the same time, China attempted to initiate the construction of a dam in the Khingan cheeks — the narrowest point of the Amur River, where the great river cuts the Maly Khingan Range. Protocols of intent have been signed between Heilugiang province and the Jewish Autonomous Region. The document could have remained unnoticed if it had not been for WWF intervention. As a result of intense
Later, in 2011–2012, another attempt was made to start the construction of hydroelectric power stations in the unregulated part of the Amur basin — on river Shilka, which, in fact, is the main channel of river Amur. The World Wildlife Fund consolidated public organizations of the Far East and Transbaikalia to protect the origins of the Amur.
In September 2011, the idea of building a Shilka hydropower plant was sharply criticized by the Coordinating Committee for Sustainable Development of the Amur Basin. Scientists, the public, reserves from the
The next important step was an emergence of a Scheme for the integrated use and protection of water bodies (SIUPWB), and this was not a permutation of letters.
The new scheme fixes a fundamental provision on the inadmissibility of the construction of hydroelectric power in the mainstream and recommendation not to use