(April 25, 2003) Although dam failures have brought about ‘unforgettable nightmares,’ the monitoring of dam safety in China is hampered by a severe shortage of funds and personnel, a Chinese newspaper reports.
Reservoirs of repression: Part One
[This article was written by Three Gorges Probe (English) editor Kelly Haggart and social scientist Yang Chongqing for China Rights Forum. The journal is published by Human Rights in China, a non-government organization formed in 1989 by scientists and scholars ‘to promote universally recognized human rights and advance the institutional protection of these rights in China.’]
Reservoirs of repression: Part Two
[This is the second part of an article that first appeared in the journal China Rights Forum, published by Human Rights in China. See also Reservoirs of repression: Part One]
No one asked the migrants
Reservoirs of repression
(April 16, 2003) Despite the questions raised around the world about the human and ecological impact of big dams, China remains committed to building them. The cost in human-rights abuses has been, and continues to be, high.
Shipping industry expects dam closure to have ‘huge impact’
Yichang, Hubei province: Shipping companies on the Yangtze River face a steep drop in income for the next two months while navigation is suspended near the Three Gorges dam.
Yangtze officials brace for shipping accidents
Officials are putting an emergency rescue plan in place to respond to shipping accidents they expect will occur on the Yangtze after the Three Gorges reservoir begins to fill on June 1, China News Service (Zhongguo xinwen she) reports.
Xiaolangdi turbine trouble heightens Three Gorges concerns
One of the foreign companies supplying turbines for the Three Gorges project has agreed to pay US$3 million in compensation after cracks appeared on similar equipment it built for a dam on the Yellow River.
Three Gorges tourism slumps amid war jitters
The threat of war in Iraq has led to a tourism slump this year in the Three Gorges area, as foreigners uneasy about air travel cancel plans for holidays abroad, the Hubei Daily (Hubei Ribao) reports.
More cash needed to fix ‘enormous’ resettlement problems, official says
A top Three Gorges project official has urged Beijing to pour more money into an increasingly cash-starved resettlement effort that is not delivering promised benefits to many of the rural migrants who have moved to make way for the world’s biggest dam.
Don’t ignore downsides of dams, official warns
(February 28, 2003) Pan Jiazheng, one of China’s top engineers, has issued a strongly worded warning to his profession not to deny the disadvantages of water projects, or neglect to address the harmful impacts when they occur.
Treating Klong Dan so it’s not all a waste
(February 26, 2003) Praphat Panyachartrak, minister for natural resources and the environment, turned heads on Monday when he announced plans to scrap the contract to build a controversial wastewater treatment plant in Samut Prakan province.
Three Gorges pollution shocks green team
Activists with a Chongqing environmental group who undertook a 10-day trip to monitor the Three Gorges reservoir cleanup campaign were shocked at what they found, the Chongqing Daily (Chongqing Ribao) reported last week.
Candid remarks on ‘water calamities’
(February 21, 2003) Speech delivered by Pan Jiazheng, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former vice-director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, at the Department of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Qinghua University, Beijing, and reprinted in Guangming Daily (Guangming Ribao) on February 21, 2003.
Ten issues for Three Gorges propaganda
(February 20, 2003) A senior spokesman for the scheme summarizes the issues that the official Chinese media should prepare themselves to ‘propagandize.’
Drought, pollution could jeopardize water-transfer scheme
(February 14, 2003) Record-low water levels in the Yangtze caused an oil tanker to run aground and disrupted shipping in large sections of the river this week. The severe drought, along with worsening pollution in a major Yangtze tributary, raise serious concerns about the scheme launched late last year to transfer water from the region to China’s parched north.
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