Three prominent scientists who took part in the environmental impact assessment conducted by Chinese researchers 15 years ago for the Three Gorges project still stand by the conclusion of that study, which raised serious concerns about building the dam, a Chinese publication reports.
(December 19, 2002) ‘Many Chinese scientists agree that building the Three Gorges dam will accelerate environmental degradation in the reservoir area and in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze,’ China’s News Weekly magazine reports.
(December 18, 2002) Residents were moved out overnight from a dangerous part of the new county town of Badong in the Three Gorges area after a big landslide last week, Hubei Daily (Hubei ribao) reports. The landslide started moving quickly on Dec. 9, the newspaper said in its Dec. 14 report. The mass, about 250 metres long and 100 metres wide, contained 150,000 cubic metres of mud and rock, and moved three metres in just three hours, the newspaper said. Crops and trees were damaged, but there were no reports of injuries, it said.
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.
(December 5, 2002) China’s newest power giant, created with much fanfare in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People in September, aims to finance not only the completion of the Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River but also the construction of many more huge dams upstream, a respected Chinese publication reports.
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.
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