Probe International

inspectors have approved the quality of a reef-explosion operation that has been part of efforts to raise the water level of the Three Gorges reservoir to 156 metres above sea level.

Authorities have vehemently denied that continuous drought and shortage of drinking water in southwest China are somehow related to the completion this year of the Three Gorges dam.

Hordes of rats and mice are moving into new towns and villages built for people displaced by the Three Gorges dam, raising fears of disease epidemics in the resettlement zones.

Construction work on the Xiangjiaba hydropower project, which will be China’s third-largest dam, will begin by the end of this year, the Three Gorges Project Corp. has announced.

The Three Gorges reservoir is ready to store water to the 156-metre mark, Xinhua reports. The raising of the reservoir is expected to occur this month.

‘We’ve been looking forward to this report for a long time,’ says environmental journalist Wang Yongchen. ‘Obviously it shows that the Chinese government is making this problem a priority. Otherwise they wouldn’t have published such a big figure of loss.’

China has announced the first results of a long-term project to quantify the impact of growing pollution on its economy, estimating that environmental damage cost the equivalent of 3 per cent of economic output in 2004.