(January 18, 2006) Earlier this year, China Yangtze Power Company, the listed arm of state-owned Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, announced plans to buy a string of coal-fired plants to reduce the company’s exposure to hydro risk.
“PUC broke the law,” Senator Ambrose Tillett
(January 18, 2006) “PUC colluded with BEL to gouge customers . . . it gave BEL a blank check.”
Dam holds back rumours
Quality-control tests at the Three Gorges dam site have smashed rumours that poor construction and management loopholes have resulted in cracks, China Daily says.
World Bank says benefits of Chinese hydro dam ‘impossible to quantify’
(January 18, 2006) The World Bank has given China’s second-largest hydro project a satisfactory rating on the resettlement of 46,000 people, despite having no data to assess whether anyone is better or worse off.
Groups protest Blair’s decision to drop top fraud probe
(January 17, 2007) Earlier this week, 140 international charities, churches and NGOs sent a written petition to British Prime Minister Tony Blair demanding that he reopen a corruption probe into a controversial arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
Sacking of writer signals clampdown in Hong Kong
(January 16, 2006) Jasper Becker and his defenders say the former South China Morning Post reporter was the victim of a new climate of self-censorship as Beijing imposes the ‘correct attitude’ on the Hong Kong media.
Foreign capital key to China power drive
(January 16, 2006) Overseas power firms have long been wary of moving into China, largely due to a murky regulatory climate and inconsistent tariff scheme. But Beijing’s blueprint for market-oriented reform has aroused foreign investor interest, Reuters reports.
Chinese dam benefits ‘impossible to quantify’: World Bank
(January 16, 2006) The World Bank has given Ertan, China’s second-largest hydro project, a satisfactory rating on the resettlement of 46,000 people, despite having no data to assess whether anyone is better or worse off.
Tarnished Credit Suisse sings praises of ethics
In a report underscoring its aims to conduct ethical business, the Credit Suisse Group says it gives no direct financing to the Three Gorges dam project.
The dams balance sheet
(January 30, 2006) Waterlogging, ineffective irrigation, changing crop patterns, the promise of electricity – these lines from a Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) protest song highlight the recurrent issues that plague not just the Sardar Sarovar Project, but large dams across India.
Wreckers devour China's dam towns
In the greatest peacetime ransacking in living memory, a horde of scavengers has fallen upon towns and villages that will vanish under water after the gargantuan Three Gorges dam begins to stem the Yangtze River’s flow next year.
Investment bank faces environmental, social test
As a top investment bank criticized for involvement in the Three Gorges dam prepares to unveil an environmental policy, activists wonder whether Morgan Stanley Dean Witter’s words will be turned into significant action.
Nation sets campaign to fight geological disasters
(January 11, 2006) Officials are racing against time to finish a comprehensive geological-disasters warning system in the Three Gorges dam area before the coming flood season, China’s deputy minister of land and resources says.
Nu news could be bad news
(January 11, 2006) Secrecy continues to surround the controversial plan to build a series of big dams on the Nu River in Yunnan province. Now, Chinese media reports suggest the project is set to be rammed through without environmental-impact documents being made public or open hearings held, as required by law.
China misses energy saving goal, but cracks down
(January 10, 2006) China missed its energy saving target last year, a top official said on Wednesday, but Beijing is cracking down on major companies that ignored environmental rules as sustainable development moves up the government agenda.
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