A sweeping campaign to exterminate rodents in the Three Gorges area is getting under way at a time of heightened concern about the easy availability of rat poison in China, and its frequent use in murders and suicides.

The chief engineer of the Three Gorges Corporation has heaped praise on opponents of the world’s biggest dam, calling their "different voices and views" an invaluable contribution to the success of the project.

The extent to which the huge Three Gorges reservoir will affect the climate in the region is the hot topic at the centre of a perplexing series of contradictory statements issued recently by the corporation building the dam.

(November 27, 2002) A guide to what’s happening when in the Three Gorges project construction schedule.

(November 21, 2002) Traffic jams on the Yangtze will be inevitable in the months ahead, while construction of the Three Gorges dam renders the river impassable for some passengers and freight, Chinese press reports say.

Recent Chinese media reports paint a rosy picture of the Three Gorges project, while also stressing the enormous challenges the dam builders face in the months ahead.

(November 15, 2002) ‘The discoveries being made in Fengdu are so significant that they are likely to rewrite the history of Fengdu, the entire Yangtze valley and beyond,’ write reporters for a Guangzhou-based magazine who paid a recent visit to the doomed city.

(November 8, 2002) This week the world took note, as jubilant Chinese officials looked on while a convoy of trucks dumped the last of the boulders that would finally tame the once mighty Yangtze to make way for the country’s monumental Three Gorges dam.

China has nearly completed the Three Gorges dam along the Yangtze River, so equipment can be moved for use at the Salween dams project [in Burma],’ the president of the Thai utility EGAT is quoted as saying.

Demolition authorities plan to blast what remains of the ancient town of Fengjie to clear the area for construction of the Three Gorges dam reservoir.

(October 17, 2002) As concern mounts about pollution in the future Three Gorges reservoir, Chongqing appears to be considering the idea of abandoning the Yangtze River altogether as a source of drinking water. Officials are studying the feasibility of drawing cleaner supplies from smaller rivers in the vicinity, such as the Qi, Wubu and Hou, the Chongqing Morning Post (Chongqing chenbao) reported Oct. 10.

Work on a wastewater-treatment system that must be finished before the Three Gorges reservoir is filled next year has been halted because of angry protests by citizens demanding higher compensation, the Chongqing Morning Post reports.

Chinese media report a fatal accident, a forced eviction – and an official’s chilling threat that next year floodwater could be used to oust reluctant migrants.