Xinhua reports on the 555 explosions that brought down the kilometre-long cofferdam in 18 seconds.
China’s Three Gorges dam developer switches to coal
(January 18, 2006) Earlier this year, China Yangtze Power Company, the listed arm of state-owned Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, announced plans to buy a string of coal-fired plants to reduce the company’s exposure to hydro risk.
Dam holds back rumours
Quality-control tests at the Three Gorges dam site have smashed rumours that poor construction and management loopholes have resulted in cracks, China Daily says.
World Bank says benefits of Chinese hydro dam ‘impossible to quantify’
(January 18, 2006) The World Bank has given China’s second-largest hydro project a satisfactory rating on the resettlement of 46,000 people, despite having no data to assess whether anyone is better or worse off.
Sacking of writer signals clampdown in Hong Kong
(January 16, 2006) Jasper Becker and his defenders say the former South China Morning Post reporter was the victim of a new climate of self-censorship as Beijing imposes the ‘correct attitude’ on the Hong Kong media.
Foreign capital key to China power drive
(January 16, 2006) Overseas power firms have long been wary of moving into China, largely due to a murky regulatory climate and inconsistent tariff scheme. But Beijing’s blueprint for market-oriented reform has aroused foreign investor interest, Reuters reports.
Chinese dam benefits ‘impossible to quantify’: World Bank
(January 16, 2006) The World Bank has given Ertan, China’s second-largest hydro project, a satisfactory rating on the resettlement of 46,000 people, despite having no data to assess whether anyone is better or worse off.
Tarnished Credit Suisse sings praises of ethics
In a report underscoring its aims to conduct ethical business, the Credit Suisse Group says it gives no direct financing to the Three Gorges dam project.
Wreckers devour China's dam towns
In the greatest peacetime ransacking in living memory, a horde of scavengers has fallen upon towns and villages that will vanish under water after the gargantuan Three Gorges dam begins to stem the Yangtze River’s flow next year.
Investment bank faces environmental, social test
As a top investment bank criticized for involvement in the Three Gorges dam prepares to unveil an environmental policy, activists wonder whether Morgan Stanley Dean Witter’s words will be turned into significant action.
Nation sets campaign to fight geological disasters
(January 11, 2006) Officials are racing against time to finish a comprehensive geological-disasters warning system in the Three Gorges dam area before the coming flood season, China’s deputy minister of land and resources says.
China misses energy saving goal, but cracks down
(January 10, 2006) China missed its energy saving target last year, a top official said on Wednesday, but Beijing is cracking down on major companies that ignored environmental rules as sustainable development moves up the government agenda.
Chinese company chosen to help build huge dam in Ethiopia
(January 10, 2006) China has won a bid to help construct a dam on a Nile River tributary that will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric project and 10 metres taller than the Three Gorges dam.
Is China ready for more floods?
Some experts believe China’s big-dam projects are an inefficient use of the funds set aside for flood prevention, BBC News Online reports. ‘Give the people in the villages more money,’ it quotes water specialist Wang Weiluo as saying.
Floods ravage north-western China
At least 205 people are dead, and hundreds more are missing, in catastrophic floods in north-western China that local reports describe as the worst in the area for more than a century.
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