As political tensions escalated this week across the Taiwan Strait, a Beijing magazine urged the central government to pass tough new laws to help prevent military attacks on the Three Gorges dam.
Top officials sacked in Three Gorges project shakeup
Two top officials overseeing the Three Gorges project have been removed from their posts, Xinhua news agency reported this week without explanation.
New newspaper probes resettlement-budget shambles
(November 21, 2003) Xiong Deming became a media star in China recently after the Premier himself suddenly appeared in her village and pledged to help her husband collect back-pay owing from a local contractor.
Raising the reservoir: Reports point to shipping problems, hydropower targets
The Chinese press provides a few more details about the sudden decision to raise the Three Gorges reservoir faster than planned.
Monkeys return to a degraded river
Thousands of monkeys that fled in fear as the Three Gorges reservoir began rising have returned to their native habitat on one of the Yangtze’s most beautiful tributaries. But they have come back to a much dirtier river.
Severe floods expected to put new dam to the test
(May 27, 2003) Abnormally heavy flooding on the Yangtze River this summer is expected to put the newly built Three Gorges dam to its first major test.
Severe floods expected to put new dam to the test
Abnormally heavy flooding on the Yangtze River this summer is expected to put the newly built Three Gorges dam to its first major test.
Yangtze officials brace for shipping accidents
Officials are putting an emergency rescue plan in place to respond to shipping accidents they expect will occur on the Yangtze after the Three Gorges reservoir begins to fill on June 1, China News Service (Zhongguo xinwen she) reports.
More cash needed to fix ‘enormous’ resettlement problems, official says
A top Three Gorges project official has urged Beijing to pour more money into an increasingly cash-starved resettlement effort that is not delivering promised benefits to many of the rural migrants who have moved to make way for the world’s biggest dam.
Three Gorges pollution shocks green team
Activists with a Chongqing environmental group who undertook a 10-day trip to monitor the Three Gorges reservoir cleanup campaign were shocked at what they found, the Chongqing Daily (Chongqing Ribao) reported last week.
Candid remarks on ‘water calamities’
(February 21, 2003) Speech delivered by Pan Jiazheng, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former vice-director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, at the Department of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Qinghua University, Beijing, and reprinted in Guangming Daily (Guangming Ribao) on February 21, 2003.
Ten issues for Three Gorges propaganda
(February 20, 2003) A senior spokesman for the scheme summarizes the issues that the official Chinese media should prepare themselves to ‘propagandize.’
Drought, pollution could jeopardize water-transfer scheme
(February 14, 2003) Record-low water levels in the Yangtze caused an oil tanker to run aground and disrupted shipping in large sections of the river this week. The severe drought, along with worsening pollution in a major Yangtze tributary, raise serious concerns about the scheme launched late last year to transfer water from the region to China’s parched north.
Damn the fish: Lessons from Glen Canyon
(February 7, 2003) A huge dam near the Grand Canyon in the United States, which has killed off half the native fish species that once thrived downstream, holds lessons for the Three Gorges project.
Three Gorges sedimentation concerns build up
(January 24, 2003) The builders of the Three Gorges project are showing new concern about the prospect of a dangerous buildup of silt in the massive reservoir behind the dam, and are still discussing basic aspects of the dam’s operating regime and likely impacts.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
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