Many thousands of cubic metres of earth, rock and other construction waste were simply being toppled into the river at the construction site in Wushan county when inspectors visited last month, the newspaper said.

Lei Shijiu, an official with Chongqing’s Channel Administration Bureau, said the dumping posed a serious threat to boats on the Yangtze, to the river course itself and to the environment in the Three Gorges reservoir area. The waste material would be carried by the current and deposited downstream, adding to sedimentation problems along the river and in the reservoir of the Gezhouba dam, 100 kilometres away.

Both the bridge builders and Wushan county officials appear to have ignored the stop-work order, the newspaper reported.

The bridge is being built at the entrance to the Wu Gorge, 60 km upstream of the Three Gorges dam. Local residents want the bridge, but are upset that reckless construction work is scarring the landscape in the most magnificent section of the Three Gorges, the newspaper said.