Probe International

(September 25, 2001) An inside source reports the Chinese government is planning to channel a budget of US$2.5 billion to help treat water pollution in the Three Gorges reservoir over a 10-year period. Since the reservoir is expected to be filled by 2003, nearby work sites slated for flooding, such as factories, mines and hospitals – at risk from poisons kept on the premises – will be cleaned up first.

(September 25, 2001) Zheng Jianchao, a member of China’s Academy of Engineering and the director of a water conservancy and hydropower electricity academy for the Ministry of Water Resources, called for consideration of market demand for two proposed big dams upstream of the Three Gorges project, reports Sanxia gongcheng bao (Three Gorges Project Daily).

(September 14, 2001) Radio Free Asia reported that up to one thousand migrants from the Three Gorges area, slated for resettlement in Hunan Province’s Yongzhou City, were gathering to block the city’s railway station and highway bridge in an attempt to secure a return passage to their place of origin.

(September 11, 2001) A new survey will assess Three Gorges dam migrants’ human rights situation, reports Zhongguo xinwen she (China News Service). Described as an "empirical survey," to be conducted jointly by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Resettlement Bureau of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, the study will examine whether migrants’ human rights conditions have improved or deteriorated, what migrants’ rights and responsibilities are, and how forced resettlement has affected migrants’ employment, cultural, educational and political rights.