Why did the Chinese government choose not to reveal the real total capacity of the Three Gorges Dam reservoir – perhaps the most critical technical specification of the entire project?
Flee from floods
India disaster highlights pressure on Asia’s great rivers
A glacial burst that triggered a deadly flash flood in the Indian Himalayas focuses fears on the impacts of “bumper-to-bumper” dam building in seismically active regions and China’s dam operations in neighbouring […]
China’s Three Gorges Dam is one of the largest ever created. Was it worth it?
The Three Gorges Dam was designed to tame China’s longest river. But this summer’s record rains reveal its limited ability to control floods.
Floods focus fresh scrutiny on Three Gorges Dam
As Beijing officials and Three Gorges Dam operator, China Three Gorges Corporation, praise the hydro giant for its performance and benefits during a time of punishing floods and some of the heaviest […]
Disgorging
More on the Three Gorges Dam’s flood control capabilities and its performance in one of the wettest seasons for China since the record-breaking El Niño event of 1997-98. In this report, The Economist concludes the country’s weakened river pulse is “in danger not only from floods but from its flood controls.”
Why is the flood control capacity of the Three Gorges Dam project being questioned again?
Because the project’s flood control capacity doesn’t work.
War dams
Bombed, breached, hacked … dams have a long history as weapons of war, seized on or attacked for their capacity to wreak massive havoc and suffering.
Hole lot of trouble
(August 16, 2012) The aftermath of a terrible storm that brought China’s capital to a standstill in July, has left Beijing pockmarked by sinkholes. The city’s ancient, leaking infrastructure and its grossly deficient drainage system could not modify the impacts of the severe deluge but at the heart of the sinkhole scourge is yet another structural failing: Beijing’s dysfunctional and unaccountable civil administration.
Updated: Three Gorges Dam reservoir reaches 175m
(October 31, 2011) China’s Three Gorges reservoir reached full capacity at 5 pm on October 30, for the second time since its construction. As the water level rises, so do the risks.
China’s admission spotlights Three Gorges woes
(June 29, 2011) The recent drought and the government’s mea culpa have refocused attention on problems at China’s controversial Three Gorges Dam. “The dam is becoming a symbol of all that is wrong with political decision-making in China,” says Patricia Adams of Probe International.
Chinese dams are seeking to outshine the stars in the sky
(February 25, 2011) French journalist Claude Arpi writes that the Chinese dam lobby is using global warming to ram through catastrophic dam projects.
China Dialogue: Cascade effect
(February 8, 2011) Philip Hirsh at China Dialogue writes about the downstream effects of Chinese dam projects. Below is an excerpt, and a link to the full article at China Dialogue.
Chinese dams accused of flooding the region
(November 14, 2008) Many of the 300 representatives at a recent forum in Bangkok have blamed Chinese authorities for releasing water from three hydropower dams on the Mekong River in August, which devastated hundreds of communities downstream.
Major flooding risk could span decades after Chinese earthquake
(September 7, 2008) Up to 20 million people, thousands of whom are already displaced from their homes following the devastating Chinese earthquake, are at increased risk from flooding and major power shortages in the massive Sichuan Basin over the next few decades and possibly centuries.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
Other News Sources
Probe International 