An average of 73 small dams a year have collapsed in China in the past five decades, Zhang Jiyao, the vice-minister of water resources, told a recent national conference on dam safety. Between 1954 and last year, 3,459 dams had collapsed, 3,434 of which were considered small-scale, he said, but gave no indication of fatalities.

Villagers near Guangzhou in southern China have clashed with police in a dispute over land on which housing for Three Gorges dam migrants is planned, the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily (Pingguo Ribao) reports.

(April 30, 2002) As Chinese companies ‘go global’, NGO campaigners are increasingly concerned about Beijing’s model of international development, writes Ben Schiller.

Police found a truck parked at a wharf near the dam to be carrying a potentially explosive load.

Downstream, the mountainous walls of the Three Gorges Dam are rising skywards and reaching out across the river they will block next year. Over the coming months, the temple and the surrounding towns and villages for hundreds of miles will be evacuated in preparation for the flood. The waters will climb almost 200 metres, creating a lake the length of England.

‘The Nu River proposal, already delayed for more than a year, is now unexpectedly presenting the Chinese government with a quandary of its own making: will it abide by its own laws?’

The senior official in charge of monitoring Three Gorges project quality control has said she is "really concerned" about the design of the 26 giant turbines being built for the world’s biggest dam.

‘In recent years, many problems have been discovered in big turbines made in China. More problems are expected with the Three Gorges dam,’ says the head of the project’s quality-control inspection group.