(March 22, 2013) A new report, exclusive to Probe International, calls for urgent monitoring of China’s large dams in areas prone to seismic hazard. These areas may be at increased risk from dam reservoir-induced seismicity (RIS). Scientists have observed that reservoir impoundment may not only increase the risk of strong earthquakes, particularly in areas already vulnerable to high-intensity seismic activity, but may represent a more pronounced risk in the first few years after a dam is filled.
Cyberwar and secrecy threaten China’s dams
(March 12, 2013) China may be the world’s biggest cyberspace aggressor, but security specialists say China’s computer-controlled infrastructure is more vulnerable to cyber-attacks and to malfunctioning domestic software than are Western systems. Read Patricia Adams’ piece in the Huffington Post on why China’s dams are vulnerable to both.
Critic of unbridled growth tipped as new China environment minister
(March 4, 2013) Pan Yue, a popular, outspoken and confrontational environmental official is reportedly a front-runner to become China’s new environment minister. Nicknamed Hurricane Pan, a reference to the “environmental protection storms” Pan led as former vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration, the appointment would represent a clear signal to citizens that their new government is serious about improving the country’s rivers and skylines and empowering its environmental protection bodies to take on vested interests, reports Reuters. Although, Pan’s fearless advocacy has hampered his career in the past, promoting someone viewed as a tiger tough on polluters and a critic of unbridled development could help to defuse the civil unrest that has rocked China in recent times, in large part provoked by a loss of faith in the nation’s growth miracle.
Member of the National Committee of CPPCC urges hydro development on the Nu River
(March 4, 2013) In a throwback to Maoist propaganda, a member of China’s National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has promised that building a rash of dams on China’s Nu River will cure all ills, and bring harmonious development, and leap-forward development to boot. In reality, scientists worry that the dams will trigger earthquakes and landslides and be unable to operate at full capacity for lack of water. Downstream countries are also worried about the loss of natural river flow on which their economies depend.
Three Gorges Dam tipped scales on river waste dump problem
(March 1, 2013) A new study, published by Probe International, reveals that China’s Three Gorges Dam reservoir has become a cesspool of industrial and urban sewage because of inadequate treatment and the damming of the river. Legal reforms to enforce higher standards and penalties for polluters are the only hope to rein the crisis in.
Too dam much
(February 14, 2013) A dramatic push by China’s new leadership to revive a political passion for large dam projects has ignited concerns for neighbouring countries and environmentalists.
China moves to dam the Nu, ignoring seismic, ecological, and social risks
(January 25, 2013) Environmental NGO International Rivers reports on Beijing’s move to lift a moratorium on damming China’s Nu River despite “well-documented seismic hazards, ecological and social risks”.
Nu River faces fresh threat
(January 25, 2013) A revival of plans by Beijing to embrace mega dams and the mega risks associated with them has left Chinese environmentalists reeling.
Liu Futang’s verdict causes worry amongst China’s green activists
(January 22, 2013) The conviction and sentencing of high-profile Chinese environmental activist Liu Futang is seen as a setback for China’s green movement. Considered political payback for Liu’s efforts to expose the environmental downside of government-backed projects, Liu’s trial has cast a shadow over the country’s new leadership and their commitment to green issues, reports Chinadialogue.net in this article surveying fallout from the verdict.
Residents struggle in China’s “model community” as millions set to be resettled
(January 22, 2013) China’s largest-ever forced relocation effort, in the northwestern gateway province of Shaanxi, is set to transform the lives of more than 2.8 million people over a period of 10 years. The massive migration, even by China’s standards, is currently underway in part to make way for another of the country’s vast infrastructure projects, the enormous south-north water transfer scheme; in part due to environmental degradation – geological instability caused by deforestation, and in part as a result of socioeconomic inevitability – a formidable long-range political objective to urbanize impoverished, rural populations. Drawing on his conversations with migrants, writer Andrew Stokols in this update for Chinadialogue.net, observes the human cost of China’s quest for modernity which has left many migrants struggling to meet new expenses and feeling stung by a loss of independence, purpose and stability.
Show us the dam money: Fights over post-Three Gorges subsidies
(December 28, 2012) The fight for a slice of the central government’s subsidy pie continues in the Three Gorges Dam region as local governments compete for funding to address the economic and environmental problems caused by the mega-dam’s construction. This impact update by Taiwan-based news site, Want China Times, reports that these problems remain unresolved and that residents, forced to relocate for the dam, continue to be dogged by an economic malaise. With or without subsidies, local governments are ploughing ahead with projects to build infrastructure and industrial parks. Meanwhile, usurped residents say the government should give them the subsidy money in cash, directly. Cash pay-outs that bypass local government officials would likely be money better spent: Probe International has published scores of reports over the years detailing the ways in which compensation funds for relocated residents, and past projects designed to support their transition, have proved useless at best or have disappeared into corrupt officials’ pockets at worst. For so many reasons, Probe International has concluded the Three Gorges Dam project represents a money drain that will never be plugged.
Trouble on the Yangtze
(December 19, 2012) A central government plan to dramatically increase China’s reliance on non-fossil fuels will derive two-thirds of that target from hydropower – “an increase on par with adding nearly one Three Gorges Dam a year,” reports Jane Qiu for Science magazine. In her article on over-development of the country’s river pulse, the once mighty Yangtze, Qiu looks at the threat China’s damming fever poses to river habitats and species, the calamity potential of dam construction in quake-prone regions and mounting criticism of China’s biased environmental impact assessment process.
Press Release: 80,000 deaths from 2008 Chinese earthquake was likely not an act of God, says new study
(December 12, 2012) A new study published by Probe International reveals a dangerous relationship between dam reservoirs and seismic activity.
Aftershock from 2008 Wenchuan quake hits Sichuan
(December 4, 2012) Experts say the tremor that jolted Sichuan Province last weekend is an aftershock of the killer quake that struck the province in 2008, linked to the Zipingpu Dam.
4 workers missing after dam collapses in Cambodia
(December 2, 2012) Four workers are missing and presumed drowned after a Chinese dam project, in the throes of construction in western Cambodia, partially collapsed on Saturday.
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