Probe International

(April 22, 2002) Construction began Monday (Dec. 26) on the Xiluodu project on the Jinsha River (upper Yangtze).

(April 17, 2002) The chief of the National Audit Office, Li Jinhua, has become a folk hero in China, where his reports on government finances have drawn attention to massive abuses. In 2006, his inspectors will turn their atention to the Three Gorges dam.

(February 28, 2001) After the Kunming-based NGO Green Watershed helped lead a fight to halt construction of the Nu River dams, it lost its operating licence and its founder, Yu Xiaogang, had his personal freedom restricted.

(April 14, 2002) The erosion problem is especially severe in the Danjiangkou region, an area of lakes and reservoirs between the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers that will be tapped by the planned central line of China’s massive south-north water diversion project, Xinhua said.

(April 12, 2002) ‘At the beginning of the year, China’s environmental watchdog ordered the state-owned Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corp. to halt unapproved construction of three hydropower projects, including the Xiluodu dam.’

(April 11, 2002) ‘Economic losses caused by waste is really a problem as serious as embezzlement and corruption,’ says auditor-general Li Jinhua.

(April 11, 2002) ‘The project relaunch contains unusual political messages, given that the halt had been endorsed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao,’ said one political observer.

(February 26, 2001) ‘The challenges facing further development [in the Yangtze basin] include a strain on resources and pollution. This is because of the sheer size of the overall population in the drainage areas and a concentration of industry along the river.’

(February 23, 2001) ‘One expert, Chen Guojie of the China Academy of Sciences, has compared China’s "hydropower fever" to the rampant construction of ramshackle iron smelters during the Great Leap Forward.’

(April 8, 2002) ‘China is now the workshop of the world, and while Westerners enjoy cheap commodities … we are dumping all the waste in our own backyard, our own rivers,’ said environmental consultant Ma Jun. ‘Consumers have a responsibility in this.’

(March 29, 2002) ‘Two major toxic spills in the "new" China, with its roaring economy, are now threatening the ecosystems of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, long considered the cradles of Chinese civilization.’

(March 28, 2002) Wen Wei Po says the official review of the Nu River environmental-impact assessment has been completed, and that because the EIA documents concern an international river, they have been classified a national secret.

(March 27, 2002) Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po, which has ties to the Communist Party, reports that a government environmental review of the Nu River dam project recommends building four dams instead of the 13 originally planned.

(March 26, 2002) The spring thaw could release more toxins into the water from a chemical explosion last year, the United Nations said in a report, which also criticized China for its slow initial response to the crisis in the Songhua River.

(November 13, 2000) ‘Rising energy demands due to rapid industrialization, combined with soaring oil prices and worrying levels of pollution leave, many Asian countries but one choice: diversify their energy sources. The region is increasingly turning to renewable energy.’