Category: Three Gorges Probe

Top fisheries scientist wants upper Yangtze dams scrapped

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(April 24, 2009) One of China’s top fisheries scientists has warned that further dam construction on the upper Yangtze will drive the region’s rare fish to extinction. Professor Cao Wenxuan, a Sichuan native and senior researcher at the Wuhan-based Institute of Hydrobiology, says government officials ‘know only how to eat the fish and don’t bother about protecting them.’ He wants the government to scrap its plans for more dams and remove those dams already under construction on the upper Yangtze.

 

Three Gorges dam faces 14.5-billion-dollar cost overrun

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(April 16, 2009) China’s Three Gorges Dam, due to be completed in November, is getting bigger every day on all fronts. While officially the government said it has spent 180 billion yuan (26.35 billion dollars) on building the 185-metre dam and a reservoir stretching more than 600 kilometres, local critics and foreign observers said the real figure could be more than twice that amount, and that’s just in the construction phase.

Endnotes

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Introduction

1. “Yao Yilin Says That for the Time Being China Will Not Consider Starting the Three Gorges Project Immediately,” Zhongguo Tongxun She, 23 January 1989.

2. Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard, The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams, (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1984), p. xi.

3. CIPM Yangtze Joint Venture (CYJV), Three Gorges Project Water Control Project Feasibility Study, Vol. 1, p. 16-12.

Appendix B

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On September 17, 1990, Probe International filed complaints against British Columbia Hydro International, Hydro-Québec International, SNC, Lavalin International, and Acres International for their work on the Three Gorges Water Control Project Feasibility Study. The complaints were filed with the regulatory bodies that are legally responsible for regulating the profession of engineering in the provinces of British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario.

Appendix A

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1. The population subject to resettlement should, at a minimum, maintain its current standard of living and should have the opportunity to achieve a higher standard of living after resettlement has taken place.

2. The resettlement transition period should be minimized and adequate support of both a social and economic nature should be provided during the transition period.

Chapter 12 – Economic and Financial Aspects

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by Vijay Paranjpye, Ph.D.

The feasibility study of the Three Gorges Project was conducted by the CIPM Yangtze Joint Venture (CYJV) with the principal objective of providing impartial technical input to the Government of China in its decision-making process, and to provide the basis for securing funding from international financing institutions. In the study summary, CYJV states its objective as: