Workers have begun to install monitoring equipment that will measure the impact of the huge explosion planned for Tuesday aimed at demolishing the last cofferdam built for the construction of the Three Gorges dam.

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Switzerland–ABB, the global technology and engineering company, has been awarded a contract to deliver advanced high-voltage switchgear for the Three Gorges hydro power station in China. The US$ 112-million contract – the third order ABB has won for this major power infrastructure project – was awarded by the China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation. Construction is scheduled to begin in the year 2001 and to be completed in 2004.

SEPA vice-minister Zhu Guangyao said the Chinese government would ‘make very substantial changes to the original development process’ for the Nu River dam project.

(August 16, 1999) Inside Beijing’s Zhongnanhai Compound, where China’s top leaders work, the Three Gorges power project is known as Canada’s Dam.

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China news agency).

The lives of millions of Chinese living near the swollen Yangtze River are being endangered by corrupt officials stealing cash intended to pay for dyke reinforcements and disaster relief.

The Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, which is in charge of the project, has made an effort to find new channels. In the first six months of this year, it received 3.4 billion yuan (US$409 million) from corporate bonds, interbank loans and foreign loans.

China’s leaders have ordered urgent measures to bring the controversial Three Gorges Dam project under control following admissions that it is plagued by corruption, shoddy construction and fears of environmental damage.