Three Gorges Probe

February 9, 1996

Chinese officials admitted last week that the number of people who will have to be moved to make way for the colossal Three Gorges dam is higher than originally expected.

According to a report from the Xinhua news agency, officials said the number of people who must be moved from Hubei province will exceed initial estimates because of a higher than expected population growth in the area.

Officials plan to move the people who will be flooded off their land into upland areas, but critics say the only replacement land available in the region is too steep, too elevated, and too poor to farm.

Even supporters of the dam admit that China’s resettlement plans are not practical. Pierre Senecal, a vice-president at Hydro Qu�bec and one of the authors of a 1988 Canadian study that recommended construction of the dam, has stated that the Canadian study’s conclusion that resettlement was feasible "is not valid anymore." Mr. Senecal said population growth had exceeded the study’s predictions and there was not enough land left to move people locally.

Meanwhile, according to a recent report in the New York Times, thousands of people from the city of Wanxian who have been relocated to make way for the dam are living in tents. Construction of a chemical plant, which was to employ 20,000 people from Wanxian, has been suspended because of a lack of funds.

The Three Gorges dam, on the legendary Yangtze River, was approved by Chinese authorities in April 1992. According to Premier Li Peng, the dam’s most prominent supporter, the massive resettlement of 1.3 million people to make way for the dam is "a very arduous task," but one that "is vital to the success or failure of the Three Gorges Project." People are resisting their impending resettlement, however, and according to leaked Chinese documents, security forces are being reinforced in the Three Gorges area to "handle large-scale armed fights."