November 1, 1999

Minister of the Economy Muller: Federal Government gives export guarantee to Siemens for the Three Gorges dam in China. Protests on account of the resettlement of two million people.

BERLIN (AP/taz) The Federal Government has granted an export guarantee for the construction of the controversial Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze river in China. Minister of the Economy Werner Muller said the responsible committee of the Federal government has approved the relevant request from Siemens and Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW).

According to the Minister of the Economy the guarantee, equivalent to 97 million Deutschemarks, covers financial risks of the supply of 15 transformers, with which the electricity will be distributed from the hydropower plant. Siemens received the approval on 12 October.

Muller, who set off on Saturday with chancellor Gerhard Schroder on an official visit to China and Japan, explained that it was not concerned with essential parts of the dam but merely with the periphery of the project. The decision on the guarantee had already been reached a few weeks ago.

A spokesperson for the Ministry said the application had come in during the time of the previous coalition government, which had given an approval in principle, and that this possibly has led to a legal obligation to Siemens. When they were in opposition, SPD and the Greens had condemned any support for the dam, and rejected a first guarantee of the earlier government for turbines and generators.

Together with 57 other environmental and human rights organisations, the organisation "Weed" demanded that no guarantees be provided for the construction of the dam. The world’s biggest hydropower plant on the Yangtze river will flood 1,711 villages, 116 towns, and 1,600 factories. The Chinese officials plan to resettle almost two million people. Environmental organisations like "Weed" fear enormous damage to nature. In addition a large tourist attraction of the country, the much visited valley of the Yangtze river, will be devalued.

In 1997 US engineers, in their expert study, wrote that the rocky edges of the future 650 kilometre long reservoir are unstable. Rockfalls and safety problems for ship transport are to be feared. In addition the construction of the dams is timed so tightly that the edifice in the worst case could break and the water flood the homes of millions of people.

The new dam wall of 2,300 metres wide and 185 metres high will hold back the third longest river on earth. "When the Three Gorges dam is finished, it will surpass by far all the other dams in the world", anticipates the loyal to the party-line China Daily.

The cost of the project is estimated at around 75 billion dollars.