(January 7, 2001) When China started building the giant Three Gorges Dam here in 1993, its leadership sought to use the undertaking — the country’s most ambitious engineering project since the Great Wall — to highlight the superiority of its socialist system. But now, halfway into the construction, some Chinese officials, engineers and activists say the project has instead become a testimony to malfeasance, incompetence and systemic weakness.
Three Gorges Probe – flood control; resettlement; water clean-up and conservation
(December 15, 2000) Yangtze flood control chief says, keep the alarm bells ringing
Three Gorges dam a time bomb, reports Asiaweek
(December 11, 2000)… China’s Three Gorges dam is a time bomb with problems to match its colossal girth …
Three Gorges Probe – ancient cultural relics; future developments
(December 8, 2000) Museum to store cultural relics from Three Gorges area
China turns floodwater into new source for irrigation
Floods become friends rather than foes in China, since the country has succeeded in making terrible summer floodwater useful in drought resistance.
Shanghai bans illegal fishing at mouth of Yangtze River
(December 8, 2000) Illegal fishing and eel catching are being cracked down at the mouth of the Yangtze River by the coast guards and frontier inspection police in Shanghai. The crusade, which began on Wednesday, aims to improve safety along the waterway of the longest river in China.
China’s thirst for energy
(December 6, 2000) China’s environmental degradation from its rapid, no-holds barred industrialisation has reached the point where it is now interfering with future growth. Bodies such as the World Bank have estimated that the cost of environmental pollution is equivalent to several percentage points of GDP.
Heavy rain causes cracks of Yangtze River banks
(December 5, 2000) Continuous heavy rain over the past few days have caused a section of the Yangtze River to burst its banks in Yueyang, a city in central China’s Hunan Province, a local water resources official confirmed on Thursday.
Collapses found at Yangtze River banks
(November 28, 2000) Officials were busy reinforcing embankments in a section of the Yangtze River China’s longest yesterday after collapses in three major areas. The Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported yesterday that the collapses one as long as 600 metres in the Yueyang section of the river in Central China’s Hunan Province were causing great concern as the flood season officially began yesterday.
Three Gorges dam reservoir will trigger earthquakes, say experts
(November 23, 2000) Guangzhou Daily reports that 100 experts from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan attended a mid-October conference at the Three Gorges dam site to discuss dam-related technical issues, including whether the filling of the dam’s reservoir would trigger earthquakes. The experts agreed that the weight of the water in the 600-kilometre Three Gorges dam reservoir is likely to cause earthquakes, but their magnitude will not be very large, ranging from 4.0 to 5.5 on the Richter scale.
Three Gorges Probe – provinces forced to buy electricity
(November 22, 2000) Provinces forced to buy electricity from Three Gorges dam
Common cause: China’s state-society response to environmental crisis
(October 19, 2000) The Chinese government’s recognition of the need for public input in solving the environmental crisis may offer a test for greater public participation in other areas.
China braces defences against floods
(November 17, 2000) ‘The flood-control works in some areas are like old men suffering from the passing of years. We have taken actions to cure them, while we should not expect to make them healthy young men in one day," said a top Yangtze flood-control official.
China moves farmers as Tarim River waters dwindle
(November 16, 2000) By 2008, more than 6,000 households along the Tarim River in Xinjiang will have been resettled and cultivation forbidden on the banks of the depleted waterway.
PRESS RELEASE: World Commission on Dams set to release final report tomorrow
(November 15, 2000) Dam Builders Fear Tougher Guidelines, Fewer Subsidies, an End to Large Dams.
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