(August 18, 2011) “The Yangtze River will run dry” because engineers have gone wild, building so many dams that the amount of water needed to fill all the reservoirs along the Yangtze would exceed the flow of the river. So says “A Mighty River Runs Dry,” a new study by geologist Fan Xiao of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau in China. Because there isn’t enough water in the Yangtze to fill all the dams to their designed capacity during the impoundment period each year, “an enormous waste of money” will result, with potentially staggering losses to China’s economy, 40 per cent of which comes from agriculture, fishing, industry and shipping along the Yangtze.
Not enough water in China to divert northward – Chinese scientists
(July 18, 2011) In a remarkably candid piece, the Communist Party mouthpiece, Global Times, quotes critics saying there isn’t enough water in China’s rivers to divert north under the government’s South-North Water Transfer scheme.
Choking on the Three Gorges
(June 9, 2011) China’s government at last owns up to problems at its monster dam. The Economist cites Probe International’s research documenting a significant increase in earthquakes at Three Gorges.
The Three Gorges Dam ‘failure’
(June 3, 2011) The Three Gorges Dam project failed to consider the full impact it would have on the ecological environment during its early design, an official admitted yesterday.
Drought at source
(May 20, 2011) China’s South-North Water Diversion project may have little water to spare for Beijing.
Bankers join environmentalists in alarm over Beijing’s water crisis
(May 5, 2011) Beijing’s water shortage is one of the main factors thwarting the region’s sustainable economic growth, say bankers who have joined environmentalists in sounding the alarm over the city’s “chronic water deficit.”
Beijing’s massive water diversion project could trigger earthquakes: experts
(March 28, 2011) A new study warns that plans to raise the Danjiangkou Dam could lead to earthquakes of greater than 4.0 on the Richter Scale. Experts say the dam triggered an earthquake of M 4.7 in 1973.
China to relocate 190,000 people for south-north water diversion project this year
(February 26, 2011) Official Chinese media reports that 190,000 more people will be relocated this year as part of the south-north water diversion project.
China bids to ease drought with $1bn emergency water aid
(February 11, 2011) The Chinese government plans to spend $1 billion to divert water, construct emergency wells and improve irrigation in an effort to “head off a destabilising level of stress over water.” Current drought conditions are the worst that China has seen in 60 years.
China’s north-south water diversion project hits 115 billion yuan according to Chinese state news agency
(January 24, 2011) The following article is reprinted from Xinhuanet, China’s state news agency.
Whitewash: Beijing uses water to create fake snow as drought continues
(January 17, 2011) As Beijing suffers through its decades-long drought—with no precipitation for the last ten weeks—officials think it wise to use water from nearby lakes to provide residents with what is becoming a novel experience: snowfall.
Scientists Push Desalination To Meet Water Shortages
(December 30, 2010) While China faces grave water shortages, researchers at institutions across the country are working on new water- saving and desalination technologies that they hope can alleviate the crisis in the crucial years to come.
MSNBC: As US debates, China acts with a building boom
(December 19, 2010) Gravel-laden barges glide past the willow-fringed banks of the Grand Canal, plying a trade route built 2,500 years ago to bring grain from China’s fertile south to its rulers in the north.
Probe International Exclusive: Forced resettlements at Danjiangkou dam turn ugly as massive water diversion for Beijing gets underway
(December 9, 2010) Probe International researcher and a Chinese social scientist, Yang Chongqing interviews migrants from the Danjiangkou dam reservoir in Hubei Province and finds many of the problems that plagued earlier resettlement programs are being repeated.
Progress anything but smooth on China’s ambitious, and costly, water plan
(September 20, 2010) China is engaged on the world’s most ambitious replumbing scheme.
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