Probe International

(September 10, 2002) ‘How China’s ruling Communist Party manages the environmental, social, economic and political tensions converging on such places as Tiger Leaping Gorge … will be the most important story determining China’s near-term political stability.’

(September 10, 2002) ‘Experts like Chen Guojie of the China Academy of Sciences have expressed their concern about the "rampant" overdevelopment of the rivers in China’s southwestern regions.’

(September 8, 2002) All but a few key archeological projects in China have been halted, so their staff can rescue relics in the path of the south-north water-diversion project.

(September 5, 2002) ‘Bad dams and bad economics are apparently still alive and kicking five years after the World Commission on Dams,’ says Ute Collier, author of a new report on dams from the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

(September 1, 2002) Output to exceed 360 billion kwh over the next five years, project authority says.

(September 1, 2002) ‘Construction of the main dams [at Tiger Leaping Gorge] is still scheduled to start in 2008 and the hydro-power plant is due to begin generating electricity in 2015.’

(August 29, 2002) The last phase of construction is likely to be completed in 2008, a year ahead of schedule, a project official says.

(August 29, 2002) Scientists say they have discovered more hominid fossils in the Three Gorges region than in any other part of China, with traces of human activity found there that date back more than 2 million years.

(August 28, 2002) Military attacks and natural disasters, such as earthquakes, have been considered in the design and construction of the Three Gorges dam, a project official said on the eve of the 5.7-magnitude quake in nearby Jiangxi province.

(August 17, 2002) ‘The earthquake has not affected the Three Gorges dam,’ an expert with the Hubei Province Seismological Bureau tells Interfax, adding that the closest city to the project, Yichang, was also not affected ‘very much.’

(July 31, 2002) Work has begun on the next phase of the reservoir-area cleanup operation, in advance of the planned raising of the water level after the 2006 flood season to 156 metres above sea level.

(February 12, 2002) Information on which factories pose risks to rivers will not be made available until an appropriate time after the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Jan. 29, China’s environment chief says.