(August 30, 2002) ‘China’s central government … worked to explain why officials waited 10 days before informing people in Harbin that the blast several kilometers up the Songhua River had dumped dangerous amounts of poisonous, cancer-causing benzene into the waterway.’
Odious Debt
(August 13, 2002) This paper examines the case for eliminating illegitimate or odious debt. The argument is that the population of a country is not responsible for loans taken out by an illegitimate government that did not have the right to borrow ‘in its name.’
Source of potential conflict
(August 2, 2002) ‘China’s growth-driven pollution of the environment, and its enormous demand for natural resources and energy, are also injecting a new and potentially disruptive element into Beijing’s relations with neighbouring states – water politics.’
Beijing gives the media new marching orders
(June 26, 2002) China’s media have been ordered to follow the lead of the official Xinhua news agency when covering the controversial south-north water-transfer project, Hong Kong’s Mingpao newspaper reports.
Let’s save water – and move it too, deputy premier says
(May 30, 2002) Wen Jiabao has stressed the importance of water conservation in tackling the looming environmental crisis in parched north China, while also voicing support for the controversial south-north water-diversion scheme.
Auditors to probe 2008 Olympics preparation
(April 12, 2002) Another mammoth project to come under the spotlight will be the Three Gorges Dam.’
300 million Chinese drink unsafe water
(April 11, 2002) Paper and chemical plants have long been cited as key sources of degradation of most of China’s waterways. In some areas, the problems have prompted riots by residents outraged by chronic health problems and the destruction of their fields and fish farms.
China launches belated archaeological rescue
(March 19, 2002) As with the Three Gorges dam, where a lack of funding and co-ordination led to a hasty archeological rescue, many cultural experts fear the government’s response has also been too little, too late with the south-north water diversion project.
Legislator calls for scrutiny of water-diversion scheme
(March 14, 2002) In a sign that China’s rubber-stamp legislature is getting more assertive, a legislator has contended that projects concerning national strategy need to be examined and approved by the National People’s Congress (NPC), adding that a case in point is the gigantic South-North Water-Diversion Project.
Three Gorges rural resettlement and its impact on the host population and the environment
March 1/2002 Three Gorges rural resettlement and its impact on the host population and the environment by Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers A case study in Wuqiao district, Wanxian city 1. Research […]
A river in reverse
(January 30, 2002) Salt seeping up the Pearl River is threatening the delta. Environmentalists want local governments in the watershed to stop dam building, reforest the uplands and conserve water along the river’s 2,200-kilometre course.
Green watchdog wants accident news fast
(January 17, 2002) China’s State Environmental Protection Administration wants local authorities to report environmental accidents within an hour so it can better inform the public of impending disasters.
China takes on toxic industry
(January 7, 2002) SEPA says it has received 45 accident reports, mostly water pollution, since last November when an explosion in a chemical plant on the Songhua River killed five people.
Northern China wetlands drying up: Xinhua
(November 30, 2001) Xinhua said wetlands along north China’s biggest river system have shrunk by more than 80 per cent over the past five decades due to excessive exploitation of the river and damming of its tributaries.
Wetlands sucked dry in China
(November 29, 2001) Fifty years ago, the Haihe and its tributaries formed an ecologically rich area that included 1,465 square miles of wetlands. Xinhua reports that the wetlands have now shrunk to just 207 square miles.
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