(April 21, 2009) China will build at least 20 more reservoirs or hydroelectric projects in the Yangtze river system by 2020, the government said Tuesday, despite growing concerns over dam construction there.
28,000 more moved from China Three Gorges area
(April 17, 2009) Landslides and mudflows caused by rising and falling waters behind China’s gigantic Three Gorges Dam has forced the relocation of over 28,000 people since September, state press said Friday.
Three Gorges dam faces 14.5-billion-dollar cost overrun
(April 16, 2009) China’s Three Gorges Dam, due to be completed in November, is getting bigger every day on all fronts. While officially the government said it has spent 180 billion yuan (26.35 billion dollars) on building the 185-metre dam and a reservoir stretching more than 600 kilometres, local critics and foreign observers said the real figure could be more than twice that amount, and that’s just in the construction phase.
Three Gorges landslide threat worsens
(April 14, 2009) The threat of a massive landslide has prompted government authorities to issue an emergency warning to boat operators plying the Three Gorges reservoir, according to Chinese news sources.
Geological risks and sediment problems with dam building in southwest China
(April 7, 2009) Scores of high dams and deep reservoirs newly-built or under construction in seismically-active southwestern China are “truly dangerous,” a leading geologist warns in this Science Times (Kexue shibao) article.
Chapter 11 – Sedimentation Analysis
The Yangtze is not only a river of water, it is also a river of sediment. The flow of the Yangtze carries with it the fifth-largest sediment discharge of any river in the world, equivalent to about 4 percent of all river-borne sediment discharged to all the oceans of the world.
Chapter 10 – Dam Safety Analysis
The consequence of failure at the Three Gorges Dam would rank as history’s worst man-made disaster. More than 75 million people live downstream on an intensively cultivated floodplain that provides much of China’s food.
Chapter 2 – What Dam Builders Don’t Want You to Know: A Summary
Nine experts were invited by Probe International to review the Canadian dam builders’ Three Gorges Water Control Project Feasibility Study. In this chapter, the editors summarize their key findings. The nine chapters to follow provide our experts’ detailed analysis.
Chapter 1 – Damming the Three Gorges: 1920 – 1993
On April 3, 1992, China’s National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, erupted in a display of opposition unprecedented for this normally rubber-stamp body. The outburst was the latest in the decades-long dispute over the Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River.
Chinese displaced by Three Gorges Dam protest
(March 4, 2009) More than 2,000 people displaced by construction of the Three Gorges Dam clashed with police in central China during a protest Wednesday over missing resettlement payments, leaving 30 protesters injured, a Hong Kong-based group said.
Fearing for its safety, Three Gorges’ Fengjie town plans another move
(January 28, 2009) Fearing for their safety, residents of landslide-prone Fengjie in the heart of the Three Gorges reservoir have no choice but to move their town for the second time in a decade.
Chinese geologist says Zipingpu dam reservoir may have triggered China’s deadly quake, calls for investigation
(January 26, 2009) Fan Xiao, Chief Engineer of the Regional Geology Investigation Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, says scientists must investigate if Zipingpu dam triggered devastating 2008 earthquake, describes massive quake-damage to dams, rebuts recent Science Times article.
FACT SHEET: Earthquake Fatalities High in 2008
(January 6, 2009) The number of earthquake-related fatalities across the world was much higher in 2008 than in recent years.
Water brief: Three Gorges Dam
(January 1, 2009) In The World’s Water 2008-2009, the Pacific Institute’s Dr. Gleick examines the usual anticipated benefits of the Three Gorges Dam: power, navigation and flood control and the growing list of problems — serious impacts on fisheries, coastal erosion due to vastly lower sediment flow in the Yangtze, landslides, earthquakes and social unrest due to the displacement of millions of people.
Beijing officials downplay Three Gorges landslide threat
(December 4, 2008) In a delayed response to two major landslides in the Three Gorges reservoir last month, officials in Beijing now say the slides pose no danger to local residents or shipping, and that natural factors triggered the landslides, not the filling of the Three Gorges dam’s reservoir.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
Other News Sources
Probe International 