Internal documents, obtained by Probe International, reveal growing official alarm over an environmental crisis in the Three Gorges dam reservoir, indicating government claims about the project could be false, reports South China Morning Post.

Internal documents obtained by Probe International, a Canadian-based NGO, indicate that many government claims about the Three Gorges Dam project could be false.

The dam will be far less effective at flood control and generation than reported, and huge investments to control pollution will still be required, the documents state, according to the non-governmental organisation.

Letters written by Professor Zhang Guangdao, of Qinghua University and replies by Guo Shuyan, director of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, reveal a deliberate attempt to mislead public opinion.

“Perhaps you know that the flood-control capacity of the Three Project is smaller than we declared. The research was done by Qinghua University. After learning this, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Vice-Chairman Qian Zhengying questioned the Yangtze Water Resources Commission. The commission also admitted this was true,” Professor Zhang wrote in a statement on May 16 last year which formed part of the internal memos revealed by Probe International, an environmental organisation that protests against large-scale construction projects.

“However, we can sort this problem out by lowering the flood control to 135 metres, even though this would affect shipping on the river. But keep in mind, never, ever let the public know this,” it read.

Water in the reservoir is due to rise to 135 metres in 2003 and 175 metres by 2009.

Professor Zhang was principal examiner of the Three Gorges feasibility report in the 1980s. He inspected the project last March together with Ms Qian, who currently heads the project’s Quality Inspection Group.

Phone calls to the wife of Mr Zhang and Ms Qian’s office confirmed this trip, but Mr Zhang is in hospital and unavailable for comment.

In a statement circulated to Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo, Mr Zhang said that the generating capacity of the dam would be diminished during the summer months. To absorb flood water, the water level would have to be kept low. To ensure stable electricity supplies, he said it would be necessary to build additional thermal power plants, preferably oil or gas-fired plants. But Professor Zhang warned that even then no one might want to buy the power.

The price for electricity generated by the massive World Bank-funded Ertan dam is so expensive that he said “customers would rather die than buy it”, according to the documents. He also warned that the environmental situation in the Three Gorges area made him very uneasy.

Little had originally been budgeted for environmental protection, and he thought US$37 billion (HK$288 billion) would be needed in total.

“We should do something to take remedial measures since the situation is getting worse,” he said. “We should put everything right with respect to the environment because the Americans want to see our failure.”

He reported that the Chongqing Government had been slow in preparing projects to control pollution and had only begun water-treatment plants for the stretch of water near the city.

A treatment facility built with World Bank loans was inadequate and would leave 940 million cubic metres of industrial waste water untreated out of the 1.18 billion cubic metres of waste-water the city discharges, he said.

Jasper Becker, South China Morning Post, February 17, 2001