{"id":18592,"date":"2016-05-08T09:01:03","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T09:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=18592"},"modified":"2016-05-08T09:01:03","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T09:01:03","slug":"hydroelectric-power-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2016\/05\/08\/hydroelectric-power-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining in Burma and hydroelectric power in China: two major landslides with familiar causes this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mining in Burma and hydroelectric power in China: two major landslides with familiar causes<\/h5>\n

Regrettably over the course of this weekend we have seen two landslides that follow familiar patterns, one associated with mining in Burma (Myanmar) and one with the construction of facilities for generating hydroelectric power in China:<\/p>\n

1. Another jade mining landslide in Burma<\/h5>\n

It has been widely reported that on Friday there was yet another substantial landslide in the Hpakant jade mining area of Burma.\u00a0 Eleven Myanmar<\/a> carries a local report with an image:<\/p>\n

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Thirteen jade scavengers\u00a0have been\u00a0killed\u00a0and four injured\u00a0on May 5\u00a0by a\u00a0midnight\u00a0landslide that hit\u00a0a mining site run by the \u201c111 Gems Company\u201d in Seikmu village tract, Hpakant, Kachin State.\u00a0 Rescue workers\u00a0used backhoes to dig out\u00a013 bodies, saying that two of them were still unidentified. Hpakant Township police announced the names.\u00a0 \u201cNormally the jade scavengers\u00a0are not allowed into the site but sometimes the company works during the day and scavengers come at night,\u00a0hunting for jade. It\u2019s too dangerous work,\u201d\u00a0said police officer Myint Swe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"hydroelectric

The aftermath of the jade mining landslide in Burma, via Eleven Myanmar<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

This is yet another in a sequence of mining-related landslides in Hpakant in the last two years, with brutal outcomes (see my blog post about jade mine landslides in 2015<\/a>).\u00a0 The high level of landslides appears to be associated with very dangerous mining practices that reportedly have resulted from an increase in jade excavation, driven by profiteering ahead of the formation of the democratically-elected government.\u00a0 There is an urgent need to start to impose good practise on these operation to reduce the toll.\u00a0 It is of course likely that on top of the major, internationally reported landslides there are large numbers of smaller landslides that kill a few people but go unreported.<\/p>\n

Another deadly landslide during the development of facilities to generate hydroelectric power in China<\/h5>\n

Another long running theme on this blog has been the unacceptably high level of landslides associated with the development of hydroelectric power in China and India<\/a>.\u00a0 This was the subject of the paper that I presented at the Vajont conference in 2013<\/a>; sadly the pattern has continued since.\u00a0 Xinhua<\/a> has a story about the most recent major landslide, in Taining County, Sanming City in Fujian Province.\u00a0 Initial reports suggested 35 people were killed, this has now been reduced to 34.\u00a0 Xinhua reports the landslide as follows<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The landslide occurred at about 5 a.m. in Taining county, where about 100,000 cubic meters of mud and rocks flowed downhill, burying the construction site of a hydropower station and its office building…\u00a0 The landslide was triggered by heavy downpours that lashed down 191.6 millimeters of rainwater in 24 hours from Saturday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A more recent story<\/a> indicated interest in this event from both the Chinese President (Xi Jinping) and the Premier (Li Keqiang), and suggested that:<\/p>\n

Xi also urged strengthening local monitoring and safety checks for hidden dangers to prevent secondary disasters.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I agree with this sentiment, but this has been stated many times previously to little obvious effect.\u00a0 The one image of the site that has been released to date gives a pretty horrific indication of the impact of the landslide on the camp:<\/p>\n

\"Hydroelectric

The aftermath of the landslide at Taining County, Fujian on Sunday, via Xinhua<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend there have been two deadly landslides that repeat familiar themes: one was associated with mining in Burma (Myanmar) and the other with the construction of facilities to generate hydroelectric power in China<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":18599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[302,16,881,469,913,845,959,205,301,314],"class_list":["post-18592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-burma","tag-china","tag-east-asia","tag-featured","tag-hydroelectric","tag-jade","tag-landslide-report","tag-mining","tag-myanmar","tag-se-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}