Chinese Experts Warn of Three Gorges Dam ‘Catastrophe’
BEIJING - China’s giant Three Gorges Dam project could lead to an ecological “catastrophe”, Chinese experts warned in comments published Wednesday.
Environmental problems triggered by the dam began to emerge at the world’s largest hydropower project after it started operations last year, the official Xinhua news agency reported.”If no preventive measures are taken, the project could lead to catastrophe,” the report quoted experts as saying at a conference on the dam.
The head of the office in charge of constructing the dam, Wang Xiaofeng, warned of a plethora of problems sparked by the construction of the dam, including landslides, soil erosion and water pollution.
“We cannot relax our guard against ecological and environmental security problems brought on by the Three Gorges project,” Wang was quoted as saying.
“We absolutely cannot sacrifice our environment in exchange for temporary economic prosperity.”
The huge weight of the water behind the dam had started to erode the Yangtze’s banks in many places, which, together with frequent fluctuations in water levels, had triggered a series of landslides, they said.
Tan Qiwei, vice mayor of Chongqing, a sprawling southwest metropolis next to the reservoir, said the shore of the reservoir had collapsed in 91 places and a total of 36 kilometres (22 miles) of shoreline had caved in.
Frequent geological disasters had also threatened the lives of residents around the reservoir, said Huang Xuebin, head of the Headquarters for Prevention and Control of Geological Disasters at the Three Gorges Reservoir.
He said landslides around the reservoir had produced waves as high as 50 metres (165 feet), which crashed into the adjacent shoreline, causing even more damage.
Local government officials around the dam area also reported to the conference that the water quality in Yangtze river tributaries had suffered and threatened drinking water safety for residents.
Pollution caused by sedimentation put at risk the drinking water supply to 50,000 residents in one county and led to a proliferation of algae in many local rivers, they said.
Wang said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has told a cabinet meeting this year that solving environmental problems surrounding the controversial dam project should be a priority for the country.
Where proponents of the giant hydropower project see increased electricity generation and improved flood control, critics have long warned about damage to the environment, ruin to China’s heritage and misery to local residents.
The impact of the dam on the region’s wildlife is also an issue, with some critics arguing it may have contributed to the likely extinction of the rare Yangtze river dolphin.
The dam, which cost over 22 billion dollars to build, has also led to much criticism because of the forced resettlement of around 1.4 million people, and has been plagued by corruption.
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse
The dam thing
Nobody learns anything. The Aswan High Dam, which was to supply power and irrigation water for Egypt was found to be evaporating more water from the surface of the lake than it saved by blocking the flow.
“We absolutely cannot sacrifice our environment in exchange for temporary economic prosperity.” Hey, that sounds like a good idea!
It may be a good idea, but you would be convicted of heresy if you said it in the US.
Confucius wouldn’t even go fishing with a net, or hunt birds while they roosted in a nest. What would he think about his descendants?
Its terribly tragic to observe the Chinese elite attempting to follow the lead of Western elites (especially those of the U.S.)
For example, the Three Gorges Dam is both an aesthetic disastor (worse than the looting of Iraq), an environmental catastrophe and a human tragedy.
In other words, the project is modeled on the best in Western real estate practices.
In Beijing, historic buildings and districts are being rapidly torn down in order to quickly construct a Potemkin Village in time for the Olympics.
Their city planning model is obviously drawn from Singapore and Hong Kong. Ugh!
Thus, the old guard elite are trying to ape the failed city planning and environmental policies of the West. In other words, the Red Chinese elite have become the conduit for Western cultural and economic imperialism…under the guise of communist development.
As I’ve observed earlier, most Third World elite are nothing but cheap labor contractors.
Labor is disposable, while land, production and distribution is for the wealthy and powerful.
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The Chinese have a one-trillion dollar national surplus, while we have an estimated 8-trillion national debt, they are new at capitalism but they are obviously pretty good.
The dam covered homes that have provided shelter for 12-generations in some families.
Oh Contrare! (sp?) (somebody help me out on the spelling here….)
Who cares about dolphins and 1.4 million peasants! This is hydroelectric power folks! Clean power (now that it’s built.) Don’t confuse confusucious here! You told them you wanted less industrial smoke and they’re doing it. Beats nuke power too, because knowing the chinese they would just dump their nuke waste in the ocean the way the Russian and (U.S.?) Navy does.
How do we make equivalent power in the west? Oil! Coal? But we make ourselves feel better switching to electric cars that get their charge from oil and coal fired generators! Which is what is melting the poles!
And as an added bonus, when the dam thing splits in two it’ll drown millions of polluting chinese!
It’s a win-win for the environment!