Three hundred million rural Chinese are the beneficiaries of small hydropower plants, Minister of Water Resources Wang Shucheng said in Beijing Wednesday.
As in 2000, small hydropower plants saved China nine million cum of timber and redued the emission of 72 million tons of carbon dioxide, the minister told a national conference on rural hydropower.
Most of the country's small hydropower plants are located on the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, Wang said.
In a message to the meeting, Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao noted thatthe development of small hydropower plants should be combined withefforts at flood control, ecological protection and poverty reduction.
He called for accelerated upgrading of the rural power grid andrural electrization process, to attain sustainable social and economic development in rural areas.
(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2001)
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