Chinese officials admitted last month that problems with the dam had reached a crisis point and warned of an environmental catastrophe if preventative measures are not taken. The $25 billion dam has already displaced more than one million people, destroyed farmland, poisoned water supplies and driven the Yangtze dolphin to extinction. New fears of landslides, flooding and tsunami-like waves up to 50 metres high have prompted the plans to move another 2.3 million people.

Probe International, a Toronto-based group monitoring Canadian involvement in the project, is urging the Canadian government to set up a legal aid fund for the the dam’s victims. Many of the people displaced by the dam were not given adequate compensation for their losses ‚Äî others were even jailed or beaten for exposing corrupt officials.

CIDA financed the 1988 study that concluded that the project was entirely feasible, despite great evidence to the contrary. Probe International believes that “the Three Gorges dam would likely not be operating today if not for the Canadian International Development Agency’s 1986 decision to finance the feasibility study by a Canadian engineering consortium that recommended China build the dam.”

Full letter here

For more information, contact:

Patricia Adams
Executive Director
416 964 9223 x 227

patriciaadams@nextcity.com

Grainne Ryder
Policy Director
416 964 9223 x228

grainneryder@gmail.com