BEIJING, April 9 (UPI) -- China's prime minister has unexpectedly suspended plans for a massive dam system on the Nu River in western China, the New York Times reported Friday.
Scientists have warned the 13-stage dam project could ruin one of the country's last unspoiled places.
Wen Jiabao's intervention suggests China's top leaders have not approved a plan that most dam opponents had considered a "done deal."
His personal involvement is a rare and surprising response in a non-democratic government that in the past has shown little concern about the environmental effect of major public works projects.
Specicially, Wen ordered a major review of the hydropower project. Environmentalists consider the Nu, which rises in Tibet and flows 1,750 miles through Yunnan Province between the Mekong and Yangtze, one of the last pristine rivers in Asia.
Its upper reaches flow through a canyon region so rich in biodiversity, a U.N. agency last year declared it a World Heritage Site.
