China’s First Hydroelectric Dam Fish Passage Project Registered

The project to build fish passages at Daduhe Company’s Gongzui and Tongjiezi hydropower stations was approved for registration on June 7, as the first of its kind in China.

A rendering of the fish passage at the Gongzui hydropower station.

Since its establishment, Daduhe Company under China Energy has upheld the idea that “lush mountains and lucid waters are invaluable assets”. It built China’s first high-gradient headwater ecological fish passage and established the Dadu River Rare Fish Conservation and Research Center to breed 10 rare fish species under provincial-level protection such as Percocypris pingi, Onychostoma sima and Beaufortia liui as well as some endemic cash fish species. Over the past 13 years, the company has consistently carried out fish proliferation and release activities, releasing more than 11 million fish fry to the Dadu River.

With a total investment of 280 million yuan, the fish passage project at Gongzui and Tongjiezi hydropower stations in the lower reaches of the Dadu River will play an important role in protecting the ecological environment of the river basin, facilitating genetic communication between fish populations in the upstream and downstream of the dam, promoting fish reproduction, and relieving hydropower projects’ negative impact on fish proliferation. It is expected to create tremendous benefits in both economic development and environmental protection, and contribute to coordinated ecological conservation and sustainable development of the Dadu River Basin.