(August 16, 2010) The dam was hailed as an engineering feat that could withstand the worst flood in 100 years. But this year’s torrential rains have severely tested its capacity to control the surging Yangtze, writes John M. Glionna in the Los Angeles Times.
This is not Karma
(August 14, 2010) Paul Stewart, writing in Mouth to Source, details the poor development decisions that worsened the recent landslides in Zhouqu, China.
Chinese officials knew land use policies could create deadly landslide
(August 12, 2010) Brady Yauch writes that recent evidence shows poor policy decisions may be to blame for a deadly landslide in China’s northwestern Gansu province.
Critics say China’s landslides are man-made
(August 10, 2010) More critics say the poor planning policies in China are behind a rise in geological disasters.
Floods in northern China collapse reservoirs
(August 04, 2010) BEIJING — Heavy rains hindered efforts by workers to repair reservoirs and place sandbags along breached riverbanks Wednesday as the death toll from China’s worst flooding in a decade climbed above 1,000.
Dai Qing: The expensive Three Gorges flood control project
(August 3, 2010) Noted journalist and dissident Dai Qing discusses the failure of the Three Gorges dam to live up to its “official” flood control capacity.
Falling short: Three Gorges unable to prevent floods says engineer
(July 29, 2010) Three Gorges is unable to fill its flood-prevention promises, says one engineer.
China’s Three Gorges Says Yangtze Flooding Exceeds 1998 Level
(July 20, 2010) China’s Three Gorges Dam, the largest in the world, helped alleviate flooding in central China by containing the heaviest rush of water in more than 12 years.
Who to save? Three Gorges flood officials play God
(July 20, 2010) Three Gorges officials admit defeat and warn the public that the controversial dam’s reservoir cannot story its maximum capacity, writes Patricia Adams.
Yangtze River flow set to exceed level of catastrophic 1998 floods
(July 19, 2010) WUHAN (Xinhua) — The Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze River will face its first major flood-control test yet Tuesday as the flow on the river’s upper reaches nears 70,000 cubic meters a second — 20,000 cubic meters more than the flow during the 1998 floods that killed 4,150 people.
China Three Gorges dam faces major flood test
(July 19, 2010) China’s massive Three Gorges dam is facing a major test of the flood control function that was one of the key justifications for its construction, as torrential rains swell the rivers that feed it, state media said Monday.
House of cards: China’s development rush may be behind slew of geological disasters, says scientist
(July 9, 2010) The potential environmental fallout from China’s super-heated development may be putting lives at risk, says a Chinese geologist in an exclusive report for Probe International.
Chinese dam played role in deadly landslide
(July 9, 2010) An exclusive report for Probe International from Fan Xiao, chief engineer of the Regional Geology Investigation Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, detailing the potential role a nearby dam played in a deadly landslide in China’s southwest Guizhou Province.
To little surprise, environmental programs at Three Gorges are falling short
(July 5, 2010) As the environmental problems continue to plague the massive Three Gorges dam, officials are falling way behind on programs to contain the pollution caused by its construction. Less than a fifth of the “water environment” programs laid out in a ten year plan in 2001 have been completed, while all nine of the projects to control pollution from ships have not begun, according to Vice-Minister of Environmental Protection Zhang Lijun.
Chinese state media blames the gods for deadly landslide: Chinese geologist says dam construction was the likely trigger
(June 20, 2010) Fan Xiao, Chief engineer of the Regional Geology Investigation Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, says dams were the real trigger of a massive landslide in Kangding County in China’s southwestern Sichuan province.


