The Three Gorges Project Construction Committee issued a statement announcing that the reservoir is to be filled to 139 metres by Oct. 30, China News Service (Zhongguo xinwen she) reported on Friday [Sept. 26]. The report gave no explanation for the unexpected change in schedule.

The news will come as a shock to people living in the new submersion zone along the banks of the reservoir, which eventually will stretch for 660 kilometres behind the dam. Until now, there has been no suggestion that officials planned to veer from the long-established timetable, which states that the water level will be raised to 156 metres in 2006, before being raised to its final level of 175 metres in 2009.

The China News Service report said resettlement will take place "on a massive scale." However, the news agency did not indicate how many people will have to move to make way for the higher reservoir. Nor did it say whether any preparations have been made to ease the upheaval of an accelerated pace of resettlement.

It is impossible to know how many thousands of people will be required to move at painfully short notice, whether they were given any advance warning of the decision, or even whether their new homes are ready for them. Many will have assumed they still had two or three years to make the necessary practical and psychological preparations for their displacement.

News of the schedule change, which was released on the eve of China’s weeklong National Day [Oct. 1] holiday, was also carried by the Chinese-language service of the Xinhua news agency and the Chongqing Evening News (Chongqing wanbao).