(May 12, 2006) State-backed dam builders are erecting a string of skyscraper-high dams in earthquake-prone Yunnan province to meet Beijing’s power production targets, without the benefit of market discipline or effective regulatory oversight.
Three Gorges revisited
(May 3, 2006) Sichuan geologist Fan Xiao travels to the Three Gorges reservoir area, and reports on aspects of the project that continue to trouble Chinese experts.
Geologists urged to dig harder
(February 23, 2006) Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao warns that the success of the Three Gorges dam project hinges on the ability to predict disasters such as landslides, China Daily reports.
Landslide hazard monitoring in China with an example from the Baota landslide, three gorges area
(2006) The purposes of landslide monitoring are applied to analysis, forecasting and control of landslide. The indicators in landslide monitoring include the geological indicators, ground displacement indicators, indicators of displacement in borehole, ground water indicators (pore pressure, ground water table, ground water chemistry), induced factor indicators (weather, human activity), geophysical indicators and geochemical indicators. The techniques in landslide monitoring include extensometer of ground fissures, inclinometer in borehole, global position system, remote sensing and integrated real time monitoring system. A case study of Baota landslide in the enclosed landscape of the three gorges projects of Yangtze river is detailed in this paper.
Don’t forget the people
(February 7, 2006) ‘Along with the Three Gorges Dam project’s financial burden comes enormous social and environmental costs.’
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.
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.
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.
China’s longest river closes as flood toll rises
(December 16, 2005) The Yangtze River has been closed to all traffic at the site of the Three Gorges dam as flood water is now so high it is dangerous for ships to pass.
Quake hits central China, 600 km downstream of Three Gorges
(November 26, 2005) The 5.7-magnitude earthquake, the biggest in the region in half a century, does not appear to have affected the Three Gorges project. It does, however, highlight experts’ concerns about building the world’s biggest dam in a geologically fragile area.
Dai Qing: ‘I have been trying to make a public speech for the past 16 years’
(November 23, 2005) Dai Qing talks to Hong Kong news magazine Asia Weekly about her first public appearance in China since 1989.
Call for public disclosure of Nujiang hydropower development’s EIA report in accordance with the law
(September 6, 2005) The text of the open letter endorsed by a coalition of Chinese environmental groups and experts calling for disclosure of the environmental impact assessment for proposed dams on the Nu River.
Small dam collapses as flood season starts early
(June 7, 2005) As the death toll climbs above 200 at the outset of an unusually early flood season, the rumour of a disastrous dam collapse has swirled in hard-hit Hunan province, and on the Internet. So China Youth Daily sent a reporter to investigate and try to set the record straight.
Min River runs dry because of dams
(April 10, 2005) A series of dams and hydro projects have caused one of the upper Yangtze River’s largest tributaries to run dry in places, Sichuan Online reports.
Environmental NGOs in China: Encouraging action and addressing public grievances
(February 7, 2005) Patricia Adams, Executive Director of Probe International, addressed a Congressional-Executive Commission on China roundtable in Washington on Feb. 7: ‘We believe projects like Three Gorges can be built only in the absence of good information about their real costs and benefits, and in the absence of an informed public debate.’ See her statement.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
Other News Sources
Probe International 