(November 19, 2007) An article in the New York Times detailing the criticisms of the Three Gorges dam and the resettlement issues and environmental costs facing the government as the project nears completion.
Chinese dam projects criticized for their human costs
(November 19, 2007) Last year, Chinese officials celebrated the completion of the Three Gorges Dam by releasing a list of 10 world records. As in: The Three Gorges is the world’s biggest dam, biggest power plant and biggest consumer of dirt, stone, concrete and steel. Ever. Even the project’s official tally of 1.13 million displaced people made the list as record No. 10.
New York Times “Choking on Growth” series
(November 18, 2007) Probe Fellow Dai Qing responds to New York Times readers’ online queries about China’s environmental woes and the Three Gorges dam. This is part four of the New York Times “Choking on Growth” series that looks at the causes and effects of China’s environmental crisis.
SPECIAL REPORT: Dam building in the upper Yangtze basin
(November 12, 2007) Professor Chen, a senior researcher at the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, describes resettlement and environmental dangers associated with dam building in the ecologically fragile and ethnically diverse upper Yangtze region of southwestern China. He further warns that dam builders and local governments will experience greater difficulty forcing people off their land as people become more aware of their rights and of resettlement failures elsewhere.
Massive resettlement planned for Three Gorges region…again
(November 12, 2007) Three Gorges Probe decodes China’s latest urban and rural development plans for the Three Gorges reservoir region.
Yangtze pollution is getting worse, water quality expert tells CCTV
(November 9, 2007) Earlier this year, Central China Television (CCTV) interviewed Weng Lida, Director of the Yangtze Water Resources Protection Bureau, about water pollution in the Yangtze and his department’s newly-published report, Yangtze Protection and Development 2007.
Chongqing mayor denies Three Gorges project has destroyed the environment
(November 9, 2007) Chongqing mayor Wang Hongju told press in Bejing on October 15th that the Three Gorges Project has "not destroyed the local environment."
China refuses to pay more for death tied to dam project
(November 9, 2007) Fam Zhongcheng and his parents were ordered to abandon their hometown of Tonglin Village last year as part of the government relocation of 1.4 million people to make way for the 400-mile-long reservoir created by the dam. While demolishing their own home, Mr. Fan’s elderly parents were crushed when a wall collapsed on them.
Three Gorges botanical garden owner sues Chongqing forestry bureau
(November 8, 2007) A Chinese businessman is suing the government over the deaths of thousands of rare plants he had saved from being submerged by the Three Gorges dam, China Daily reported.
Damming Yangtze tributary begins for China’s 2nd largest hydropower project
(November 7, 2007) China’s Three Gorges Project Corporation began damming the Jinsha River 770 kilometres upstream from the Three Gorges dam on November 7 to build the Xiluodu hydropower plant, the second largest of its type next to the massive Three Gorges Project.
Why Chinese dam is forcing yet another mass exodus
(November 6, 2007) The relocation of a further four million people could cause untold human suffering and is only the latest controversy in a long list of environmental and social problems plaguing the Three Gorges Dam. "They had so many problems with moving one million people. How are they going to move four times that many?" asks Wu Dengming, head of the Green Volunteer League of Chongqing, a local environmental group.
Residents fear China’s Three Gorges Dam
(November 6, 2007) Several times this year, Tan Mingzhu had the terrible feeling her home in central China was about to collapse in on her family.
One dam thing after another
(November 1, 2007) Skeptics about the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam are being vindicated as Chinese officials are becoming more worried about landslides and pollution in the Three Gorges reservoir and its tributaries.
The Three Gorges: a wiser approach
(October 23, 2007) China’s central government recently warned of a potential ecological catastrophe caused by the huge Three Gorges dam, once hailed as the country’s greatest undertaking in 1,000 years. Jianqiang Liu reports on how views of the project have changed.
China counts cost of Three Gorges Dam
(October 19, 2007) China’s official news agency Xinhua reported last month that disaster could strike the Three Gorges dam region unless key problems — including landslides and bank erosion — are solved. Probe International’s executive director, Patricia Adams, and International Fellow, Dai Qing, assess the change in government rhetoric after years of assurances the dam is environmentally benign.
Probe International 