Authorities in China are stepping up a massive anti-flood effort, mobilizing tens of thousands of people to shore up the nation’s second biggest freshwater lake which threatens to burst its banks and create a disaster worse than the deadly floods of 1998.
Yangtze Power Company switches to coal
(December 8, 2005) ‘Nobody ever said damming the Yangtze River would be profitable,’ writes Probe International’s Grainne Ryder, as the listed arm of the Three Gorges Project Development Corp. diversifies to coal to reduce its exposure to hydro risk.
Quake hits central China, 600 km downstream of Three Gorges
(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.
Dai Qing: ‘I have been trying to make a public speech for the past 16 years’
(November 23, 2005) Dai Qing talks to Hong Kong news magazine Asia Weekly about her first public appearance in China since 1989.
Three Gorges and the environment
(November 15, 2005) Three Gorges Probe exclusive Dai Qing’s first public talk in China since 1989: ‘Three Gorges and the environment’
The forgotten farmers of Gaoyang
A poignant account of the resettlement woes suffered by Three Gorges migrants in Gaoyang township offers little comfort to the many other communities that stand in the way of China’s myriad planned dams.
Downstream groups back a free-flowing Nu River
(October 19, 2005) As controversy swirls in China around development plans for the Nu River in Yunnan province, 90 environmental and community groups in Burma and Thailand have lodged their own appeal with Beijing to keep the pristine international river free of dams.
Five years in Wuhan Women’s Prison for requesting fair treatment
Wang Xidong was attending a meeting at her son’s school when the police arrived for her. They took the mother of three away on April 21, 2004, and if she serves her full sentence, she won’t be home again until 2009.
The villagers who seek to safeguard Shangri-La
(September 29, 2005) ‘The government talks about environmental protection being a priority, so why then do we have to move away from this beautiful valley at the expense of the environment?’ – A villager’s lament in a CCTV documentary on Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Open letter to the PRC from the Salween Watch Coalition
(September 29, 2005) ‘We would appreciate it if your government shared with us on what basis decisions are being made that will have huge and irreversible impacts on our lives, livelihoods and environment.’
Nu River campaign gathers steam
(September 27, 2005) A bold open letter calling on Beijing to release documents related to controversial plans to dam the Nu River in southwest China has sparked an Internet petition drive that is steadily gaining momentum.
Rivers in chaos and Shanghai at risk
In a wide-ranging interview, prominent scientist Chen Guojie says he is ‘extremely worried’ about the impacts on Shanghai of a number of colossal projects on the Yangtze River, including the Three Gorges dam.
Open letter puts pressure on Beijing over secretive dam plans
(September 7, 2005) Dozens of Chinese environmental groups and close to 100 concerned experts have joined forces to publish a dramatic open letter urging the government to release documents related to secretive plans to dam the Nu River in southwest China.
Call for public disclosure of Nujiang hydropower development’s EIA report in accordance with the law
(September 6, 2005) The text of the open letter endorsed by a coalition of Chinese environmental groups and experts calling for disclosure of the environmental impact assessment for proposed dams on the Nu River.
China ‘faces imminent power-overproduction crisis’
(August 9, 2005) Lin Boqiang, a leading Chinese energy economist with the Asian Development Bank, warns of the impending overproduction of power in China, a long-term problem that he says will be more serious than the short-term shortages the country has experienced.
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