On April 3, 1992, China’s National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, erupted in a display of opposition unprecedented for this normally rubber-stamp body. The outburst was the latest in the decades-long dispute over the Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River.
Introduction
by Gráinne Ryder
Editors Note 2nd Edition
This book is an updated and expanded edition of Damming The Three Gorges: What Dam Builders Don’t Want You To Know, a critique of a Canadian government-World Bank feasibility study of China’s Three Gorges Dam. Originally published in September 1990, this book exposed the flawed analyses and compromised calculations evident in the official justification of a large dam project. Since the first edition was published, others have discovered the same defects in other justifications of other large dam projects.
Foreword 2nd Edition
by Dai Qing
Foreword 1st Edition
by Niu Kangsheng
About the contributors
About the Editors
Gráinne Ryder worked as an engineer in Thailand on village water supply projects for three years before joining Probe International in 1987 as a water resources researcher. She headed an international effort to stop the Three Gorges Project until 1990 when she returned to Thailand to coordinate a campaign against a series of dams on the Mekong River.
Water level at Three Gorges Dam lowered to ensure downstream water use
(March 9, 2009) The water level at the Three Gorges Dam has been lowered by about nine meters this year as the hydroelectric project is discharging more water to ensure navigation and water use for cities downstream.
Keep polluters from Yangtze River, says Chinese political advisor
(March 7, 2009) China should keep potential polluters away from the industry-heavy Yangtze river, the country’s longest, by raising threshold and readjusting industrial layout, a political advisor said in Beijing today.
Three Gorges chief rejects scientific link between Sichuan quake and Zipingpu reservoir
(March 6, 2009) According to reports from the South China Morning Post, the Chinese government official in charge of the Three Gorges Dam has dismissed the theory linking the Zipingpu dam reservoir with the M7.9 earthquake that killed an estimated 88,000 people last May and left millions more homeless; referring to published geological analyses as “personal opinions at most.”
Father of Three Gorges’ death would open door for criticism
(March 2, 2009) Rumours have begun to circulate that Li Peng, the now 80 year-old former Premier of China who was the major driving force behind the Three Gorges project, may be seriously ill. An NGO worker in China recently told John Bishop of the China Economic Review that if the ex-leader, seen by many as the ‘Father’ of Three Gorges, were to die that critics would be able to “more openly express negative views about the project.”
Behind China’s drought
(February 10, 2009) When the Chinese state media reported last week that China’s wheat-producing provinces have been hit by the worst drought in 50 years, the story immediately went global. But when we checked official Chinese news sites we noticed something odd. Many of the photos and video clips popping up under the “worst drought in 50 years” banner showed soldiers and farmers hosing down wheat fields with water. Lots of water.
Chinese Official Defends Construction of Schools Felled in Quake
(March 9, 2009) A vice governor of the Chinese province hardest hit by the earthquake last May said Sunday that many schools collapsed then because of the strength of the 7.9 magnitude quake, and not because of shoddy construction.
Was China’s deadly earthquake man-made or an act of God?
(March 4, 2009) Chinese government must learn the lessons of Zipingpu.
Chinese displaced by Three Gorges Dam protest
(March 4, 2009) More than 2,000 people displaced by construction of the Three Gorges Dam clashed with police in central China during a protest Wednesday over missing resettlement payments, leaving 30 protesters injured, a Hong Kong-based group said.
A faultline runs through it: Exposing the hidden dangers of dam-induced earthquakes
(March 1, 2009) Besides posing a major risk to dams, scientists are increasingly certain that earthquakes can be triggered by the dams themselves. Globally, scientists believe that there are over 100 instances, strewn over six continents, of dam reservoirs inducing earthquakes. The most serious case could be the magnitude-7.9 Sichuan earthquake in China in May 2008, which some experts believe may have been induced by the Zipingpu Dam.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Patricia Adams and Lawrence Solomon
Other News Sources
