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Shipping companies in Chongqing are worried about the economic losses they may encounter when navigation on the Yangtze River is disrupted for as long as two years because of the Three Gorges project, the Chongqing Evening News (Chongqing wanbao) reports.

The diversion channel that was created in order for the dam to be built across the main stream of the Yangtze is to be blocked off this November. A temporary shiplock that will go into operation at that time is expected to be able to handle no more than two-thirds of the 200 boats that normally pass the dam site each day.

After five months of traffic jams at the dam, navigation will be completely halted on that section of the river between April and June next year. During that time, an estimated 1.5 million passengers will have to disembark and 5.4 million tonnes of freight will have to be unloaded, moved overland and reloaded onto boats on the other side of the dam.

Navigation experts predict that even after the permanent, five-step shiplock takes over (scheduled for June 2003), it may be able to accommodate only 60 per cent of normal river traffic in its first 18 months of operation.

It now appears that the disruption to navigation will be more prolonged than was indicated last year by Li Peng, chairman of the National People’s Congress and long-time champion of the dam. Mr. Li expressed concern about the impact of a 67-day interruption of river traffic when he made an inspection trip in October to the dam construction site near Yichang, Hubei province.

Navigation on the Yangtze was disrupted or blocked for 52 days in 1998 and for 20 days in 1999, causing total economic losses of about US$36 million, the Chongqing Evening News said.

More than 100 shipping companies are liable to be affected by the impending chaos on the river. They can expect to experience “a most difficult time,” the newspaper said.