(December 28, 2005) With cracks to fill and toxins to remove before the water rises next year, the people of the Yangtze can only hope no one cuts any fatal corners, John Gittings writes.

(December 28, 2005) The downstream cofferdam was demolished on July 1, two months ahead of schedule, Xinhua reports.

(December 29, 2005) Project officials still need to raise US$7.2 billion to complete construction of the world’s biggest dam.

(October 12, 1999) Environmental campaigners say the Yangtze is just the latest, biggest example of the flipside of China’s ‘economic miracle’ and that the Three Gorges dam, by slowing the river’s flow, will worsen the pollution.

(September 27, 1999) Electronic triggers will control 2,540 detonators, which will set off 971 consecutive explosions around the cofferdam when it is blown up on June 6, Xinhua reports.

(August 31, 1999) Two rows of ‘bubble curtains,’ resembling car air-bags, will be set in an effort to protect the main dam wall by absorbing 50 to 70 per cent of the energy from the huge blast that will demolish the top of the cofferdam Tuesday afternoon, Xinhua reports.

(August 31, 1999) The demolition on June 6 of the last cofferdam protecting the Three Gorges dam will take about 12 seconds and use 191 tons of explosives, enough to destroy 400 10-storey buildings, Xinhua reports.

(August 14, 1999) ‘Despite the advantages, environmental problems along the Three Gorges reservoir are serious,’ China Daily says.

(August 8, 1999) Blowing up the Three Gorges cofferdam won’t trigger severe geological disasters, said project general manager Li Yongan. ‘Three Gorges dam will remain unaffected and safe even if there might be earthquakes.’

(August 5, 1999) Engineers have demolished the temporary barrier behind the Three Gorges dam, in a spectacular explosion.

(May 26, 1999) A giant ‘tongue’ with a vast rolling track will ‘gobble’ garbage near the dam in an effort to prevent waterborne rubbish from damaging the power generators. The tongue is aboard the world’s biggest sanitation ship, which will start work in July.

(April 6, 1999) The operation took about 12 seconds, causing nearly 190,000 cubic metres of concrete from the upper-30-metre section of the cofferdam to tumble into the river,

(December 8, 1998) ‘Although the waves caused by explosion were a little stronger than predicted, the dam and the power plant were unharmed,’ said Wu Xinxia, head of the demolition team that blew up the top 30 metres of the Three Gorges cofferdam.