(January 29, 2007) It goes without saying that flood control is one of the most important functions a dam project can fulfill. However, it is unrealistic to build a dam expecting it to achieve a permanent solution to a flood problem.
(October 29, 2006) The strongest earthquake to hit China’s Hubei province in two decades shook an area near the Three Gorges dam on Oct. 27, the same day the project’s rising reservoir reached the 2006 target of 156 metres above sea level.
(August 22, 2006) A network of 21 digital earthquake-monitoring stations is to be set up in the Chongqing section of the Three Gorges reservoir by the end of next year, to ‘prevent damage caused by earthquakes and other disasters.’
(May 3, 2006) Sichuan geologist Fan Xiao travels to the Three Gorges reservoir area, and reports on aspects of the project that continue to trouble Chinese experts.
(November 26, 2005) The 5.7-magnitude earthquake, the biggest in the region in half a century, does not appear to have affected the Three Gorges project. It does, however, highlight experts’ concerns about building the world’s biggest dam in a geologically fragile area.
(December 18, 2003) Two civil engineering professors at Wuhan University believe that earthquakes in the Three Gorges reservoir area are a real cause for concern, and call for more resources to be put into investigating the region’s seismic problems.
(June 26, 2003) ‘The real danger comes from active faults in the vicinity of the dam site,’ which is located near six fault lines, a senior engineer warns in a recent Chinese newspaper report.
(July 11, 2002) Building yet another dam could threaten an ages-old engineering marvel in Sichuan and a key part of China’s heritage. But the project is going ahead as authorities smother public debate on its impact.
(May 9, 2002) Large dams in mountainous regions could threaten people living near them by stressing the Earth’s crust to danger levels, a scientist says.
(February 16, 2001) A study written by Dr. Paul Burton and Steve Cole from Benfield Hazard Research Centre describes historical Chinese earthquakes and Chinese efforts in predicting earthquakes.
(August 7, 1998) As China’s worst Yangtze flood in half a century hits, the government must decide whether to submerge poor rural districts in order to save large cities like Wuhan. Environmentalist Dai Qing says the Three Gorges Dam would not help.
Patricia Adams
Brady Yauch
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Lisa Peryman
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