Speech to the World Commission on Dams presented by Probe International’s Grainne Ryder
Chinese officials caught embezzling Three Gorges resettlement funds
(February 21, 2000) China’s State Auditing Administration has revealed that local officials have embezzled about $57.7 million (all figures in U.S. dollars) in Three Gorges resettlement funds.
500,000 people to be affected by Yunnan hydropower development in the next 15 years
(January 25, 2000) According to the 22nd meeting of the Standing Committee of Yunnan People’s Congress, starting from this year, Yunnan Province will have to move an average of 40,000 people every year to pave the way for hydropower development, which is equivalent to the total figure of dam migrants in the past 50 years.
PRESS RELEASE Chinese government orders farmers out of Three Gorges region
(January 18, 2000) In a desperate attempt to keep pace with construction of the Three Gorges dam, which will flood close to two million people out of their homes, China’s central government recently announced plans to move 125,000 rural people out of the project area.
China’s official media reports Three Gorges dam investment and resettlement figures
(January 18, 2000) China News Agency reported on January 12 that the Three Gorges dam has cost the Chinese government $5.65 billion (all figures in U.S. dollars) since construction began in 1993. The news agency also reports that this year the government plans to invest another $1.57 billion in the $30-billion dam, making 2000 the project’s peak investment year thus far. The $1.57-billion investment is assured according to a quote from a leader of China’s Three Gorges Project Corporation, the dam’s sole contractor.
Plans call for energy efficiency
(January 3, 2000) Plans have been launched to make both residential and office buildings more energy efficient. In the first five months of the year, industrial policymakers announced three sets of new national standards. They are regulations on energy saving for civil buildings, standards for residential buildings and technical evaluations of residential constructions.
Auditors uncover tide of misconduct
(December 17, 1999) Company funds spent on securities speculation, flood control money squandered on building a new hotel, billions stolen to set up a company and bogus stock listings are among the misdeeds uncovered by government auditors this year.
The Three Gorges dam: A great leap backward for China’s electricity consumers and economy
Uneconomic and outdated, the Three Gorges dam will stunt China’s economic growth
China’s Three Gorges dam to begin flood control with a bang
(December 15, 1999) The moment of truth for the world’s largest dam will arrive on June 6. The main concrete wall of the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River must begin to hold water after a temporary cofferdam is demolished in a series of planned explosions.
Operation, monitoring and decommissioning of large dams in India
(December 1999) Large dams can trigger earthquakes. The first observation of possible RIS was noted for Algeria’s Quedd Fodda Dam in 1932; the first extensive study of the correlation between increased earthquake […]
Three Gorges dam will turn the fast-flowing Yangtze into stagnant, polluted reservoir
(November 29, 1999) Wei Ming, writing under a pseudonym, is a Chinese sociologist who recently visited five of the 22 Yangtze river counties that are slated for flooding by the Three Gorges dam.
China’s longest river ‘cancerous’ with pollution
(November 19, 1999) China’s longest river is "cancerous" with pollution and rapidly dying, threatening drinking water supplies in 186 cities along its banks, state media said on Tuesday. Chinese environmental experts fear worsening pollution could kill the Yangtze river within five years, Xinhua news agency said, calling for an urgent clean-up.
The Three Gorges Project: an error in ‘democratic decision-making’
(November 16, 1999) After eleven and a half years, the construction of Three Gorges Dam located on the Yangtze River at Sandouping of Yichang City, Hubei Province was officially completed on the morning of May 20, 2006.
Crisis as Yangtze evacuees rise to 4m
China is to move 700,000 people from low-lying areas along the Yangtze River before next summer’s flood season, the official China Daily newspaper reported yesterday.
In search of the new China
The Middle Kingdom has seen great advances and horrible setbacks. Where is it heading now?
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
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