Probe International

(Septermber 10, 2008) Three Gorges Project, for the first time, will carry out an experiment of 175m water impoundment in middle September, which will improve the navigation conditions along Yangtze River and in Three Gorges reservoir area, and increase shipping efficiency of the Project, according to news from Yangtze River Water Resources Commission and China Three Gorges Corporation.

(September 27, 2008) China is to begin raising water levels at the Three Gorges Project on Sunday, the developer of the massive water conservancy project announced on Saturday.

(March 19, 2004) Dai Qing, eminent Beijing-based journalist and veteran campaigner against the Three Gorges dam, discusses the suppression of opposition to the project in a recent talk at the University of Toronto in Canada.

(March 31, 2004) The company building the Three Gorges dam has signed purchase contracts with two Chinese firms and Alstom of France for the 12 hydropower generating units destined for the right-bank powerhouse of the Three Gorges dam.

(April 1, 2004) Citing ‘worrisome’ levels of industrial pollution, China’s state environmental agency has acknowledged that pollution-control efforts in the Three Gorges reservoir area have not gone as well as planned, China Daily reports.

(December 13, 2005) Millions living along the Yangtze River are hopeful that the big dam will finally tame the unruly river. But observers who have studied China’s efforts to curb the Yangtze via the massive construction project are far less upbeat.

(December 17, 2005) The Three Gorges Project Corp. plans to issue bonds worth five billion yuan (US$600 million) to domestic investors.

(December 18, 2005) Yichang, near the Three Gorges dam, is planning various events this fall ‘to showcase the emerging world-class hydropower city,’ Xinhua reports.

(December 21, 2005) Police in eastern China detained 40 people who had demanded to be sent back to their homes in the southwest which they were forced to leave to make way for the giant Three Gorges dam, a rights group said on the weekend.

(December 27, 2005) The Economist asks: What happens to the villagers slated for resettlement who dare to protest? ‘We don’t dare to speak out,’ one villager says. ‘If we do, we’ll be arrested.’