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dam-l IPS: Banned Voices Speak on Three Gorges Dam
>
>ENVIRONMENT-CHINA: Banned Voices Speak on Three Gorges Dam
>
>By Danielle Knight
>
>WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (IPS) - Chinese authorities recently diverted a side
>channel on the Yangtze River to make way for the construction of the the
>Three Gorges dam - the largest hydro electric project in history. But
>questions on the value of the project to China, and the Chinese, are
>becoming louder - even from inside the ''Middle
>Kingdom.''
>
>In a new book titled 'The River Dragon Has Come!' Chinese scientists,
>journalists and environmentalists - banned from criticizing the project
>in their home country - ask why anyone would want to build a dam that
>would force more than one million people from their homes? And why wreak
>widespread environmental havoc in the countryside, when a series of
>smaller projects would produce just as much energy?, ask the concerned
>Chinese.
>
>Dai Qing, one of China's best-known writers, calls the project a
>''symbol of uncontrolled development.'' She hopes the book of
>essays - edited by two North American environmental organisations, Probe
>International and the International Rivers Network - will prove the
>Three Gorges Dam ''is the most environmentally and socially destructive
>project in the world.''
>
>Dai Qing and others - some of whom had to hide their real names - reveal
>the deep-rooted problems surrounding the Three Gorges project that the
>government is attempting to silence.
>
>Government officials say the dam will generate needed electricity,
>provide flood control and ease navigation on the Yangtze.
>The reports in ''River Dragon'', however, reveal quite a different
>picture.
>
>The dam, scheduled to be completed between 2009 and 2013, would create a
>gigantic reservoir on the middle of the Yangtze - China's longest river
>- evicting more than one million people.
>
>Water will rise throughout most of the Three Gorges area, a fabled
>lattice-work of waterways, permanently flooding about 32,000 hectares of
>prime farmland, 13 cities, 140 towns, 1,352 villages, 657 factories, and
>hundreds of archaeological relics - some more than 6,000 years old.
>
>Besides the loss of farmland, critics say the dam will further threaten
>many endangered species, such as the white-fin dolphin and various fish
>species, writes Dai Qing.
>
>Comparing this project to other dams in China that collapsed after
>completion, and resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, several of the
>Chinese writers point out that the Three Gorges Dam is being built over
>several seismic faults which could lead to disaster.
>
>The dam's ability to generate electricity depends on avoiding a massive
>buildup of sediment behind the dam, say critics. They point to the Three
>Gate Gorge dam on the Yellow River, which has induced floods and led to
>the resettlement of more than 400,000 people. ''It now produces less
>than one-third of the power that was promised, its turbines are damaged
>by sediment, and it will not be able to fulfill its flood-control
>function,'' writes Dai Qing.
>
>Similar concerns were raised by the California-based Sklar- Luers &
>Associates, an independent engineering consultant group. Sedimentation
>problems and other engineering mis-calculations including potential
>coffer dam failures ''threaten the safety and viability'' of the
>project, say the engineers.
>
>Reports in the ''River Dragon'' say the dam will turn the Yangtze into a
>giant cesspool. ''By severing the mighty river and slowing the flow of
>its water, the dam will cause pollution from industrial and residential
>sources to concentrate in the river, rather than be flushed out at
>sea,'' Chinese journalist writes Jin Hui. ''The result will be a
>poisoned river.''
>
>The forced relocation of people will cause an increase in deforestation
>and soil erosion as they are pushed onto overused land. ''The
>environment of the Three Gorges area cannot sustain the hundreds of
>thousands of people who are supposed to resettle there,'' writes Chen
>Guojie, a research fellow at the Chengdu Geological Institute.
>
>Critics also say the escalating cost of the dam - which is now estimated
>to be between 27 to 70 billion dollars - could wreck the economy. Even
>the World Bank, by far the largest public financier of dam projects
>worldwide, has warned that the pool level of the 660 kilometer-long
>reservoir will not be an economically viable proposition.
>
>''Was this crucial decision to build the biggest dam in the world made
>on the basis of scientific feasibility or was it decided because of the
>ambitions of politicians intent on forcing the project through as an
>icon of superpower status and national prestige?,'' asks Dai Qing.
>
>'The River Dragon Has Come!' is Dai Qing's second volume on the
>controversial project. Her first, 'Yangtze! Yangtze!, published nine
>years agon, also was banned in China and earned her a ten- month prison
>sentence and her writings in China were banned for life. Undaunted, she
>continues to speak out against the dam, under constant police
>surveillance, from within Beijing.
>
>While she and other opponents recognize the need for more energy sources
>and flood control, they argue that these can be attained at much lower
>human, environmental, and financial risk by building a series of smaller
>dams in sparsely populated areas in the tributaries and upper reaches of
>the Yangtze.
>
>Can the Three Gorges project be stopped?
>
>There is no easy answer, says Dai Qing although efforts outside China to
>cutoff the flow of foreign financing could stop the dam from operating.
>''If the project is to be supported financially by multinational
>organisations, then it cannot avoid the scrutiny of the outside world.''
>
>As the book begins to appear in stores across the country, two
>Washington-based environmental groups, Friends of the Earth (FOE) and
>the International Rivers Network, with other organisations, are calling
>on investors to halt their support of the controversial dam.
>
>In letters sent last month to Lehman Brothers, C.S. First Boston, J.P.
>Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Smith Barney, and BankAmerica Corporation, they
>urged the firms to stop underwriting bonds for the State Development
>Bank (SDB) of China, whose leading creditor is the Three Gorges
>Development Corporation. In January 1997, these firms underwrote a 330
>million dollar bond issue for the SDB, say the groups. So far there has
>been no official response from the banks.
>
>''The Three Gorges Dam is on its way to becoming the leading
>non-performing asset in the history of finance,'' says Michelle
>Chan-Fishel, a policy analyst with FOE. ''Ironically, these bonds are
>propping up the very projects that are causing much of the deteriorating
>health of China's banking industry.'' (END/ips/dk/97)
>