The Wenshan prefecture in China's southwest Yunnan province, which has attracted top aluminium producers for its abundant water resources, has failed to crack down illegal hydropower station, the environmental regulator said on Wednesday.
A central government environmental inspection team found a hydropower station with installed capacity at 2,500 kilowatts in the National Nature Reserve of Wenshan was still operating despite being repeatedly asked to rectify, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said in a statement.
China had asked local governments to clean up or rectify small hydropower plants in the Yangtze River Economic Zone by end-2020 to protect and repair its river ecosystem.
But the Wenshan prefecture was "perfunctory" in the rectifications and the illegal operation had "severely damaged ecological environment of the reserve," the statement added.
The audit team will investigate the situation further and conduct follow-up inspections, the environment ministry said.
Wenshan is emerging as China's new aluminium centre as smelters are turning to hydropower resources for the energy-intensive smelting process.
China's major aluminium producers including Chinalco, Hongqiao Group and Henan Shenhuo having been moving capacity to the prefecture.
(Reporting by Min Zhang and Shivani Singh; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
