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A yearlong assessment of the controversial Shuangjiangkou hydropower project in southwestern China has been given approval on Monday, prompting concern among green campaigners and local residents.

Despite critics claiming the dam - on the upper reaches of Dadu River in Sichuan province - would affect water quality, kill fish and result in several nature reserves being submerged, the Ministry of Environmental Protection gave the assessment the green light.

China Guodian Corp has invested 24.68 billion yuan ($4 billion) in the hydropower project, which started construction in 2008. The project is expected to generate an installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts.

Its reservoir will hold 3,135 billion cubic meters of water and have a catchment area of 39,330 square kilometers.

According to the assessment report, the plans are in accordance with China's energy development plan.

However, Liu Shukun, a professor at China Water Resources and Hydropower Institute, said cascading dam projects such as this do influence the ecological system.

"The chemical, thermal and physical changes that flowing water undergo, when it is stilled, can seriously contaminate a reservoir or river downstream," he said.

"That causes blue-green algae, the death of fish, and an increase in turbidity.

"A negative influence of aquatic ecology and sediment accumulation would occur as the water quality deteriorates."

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