Probe International

Three Gorges petitioners ‘held by police’, reports South China Morning Post.

Three Gorges dam protesters beaten, town held under guard.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that repeated clashes between Three Gorges residents and police in recent months is part of a growing wave of local protest against government corruption in relation to the Three Gorges dam.

South China Morning Post reports that the majority of farmers displaced by the Three Gorges dam will have to be resettled within the project area, according to resettlement officials quoted in an official Xinhua News Agency report.

The Chinese corporation in charge of building the massive Three Gorges dam has already started building another giant dam on a downstream tributary and has plans for another two dams upstream.

Proponents of the Three Gorges Project claim that the megadam is the best way to reduce China’s reliance on coal.  Energy specialists argue, however, that switching from coal to gas, and using new technology of combined cycle gas turbines or cogeneration, would be able to reap greater environmental benefits than the Yangtze dam by a prospective 60 per cent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

This year’s flood disasters in China have prompted a vociferous debate on the Internet among expatriate Chinese communities in North America. Several high-circulation on-line magazines have weighed in on the subject with lengthy articles and interviews, particularly with reference to the issue of dubious flood control benefits of the Three Gorges project.

Technological advances in world’s energy markets have turned mega-power projects like the Three Gorges into modern-day dinosaurs. Energy analysts believe that China would provide a generating capacity two to six times of that of Yangtze dam by cancelling the project, reforming the energy section, and allowing investments instead in cleaner energy alternatives.

Earlier this year, sociologist Wu Ming travelled to the counties around the Three Gorges Dam. Here is an excerpt from his study, published by the International Rivers Network in March, 1998.