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dam-l 3 Gorges dam relocation lags <fwd> article



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From owner-irn-three-gorges@igc.org  Wed Mar 18 00:57:04 1998
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Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 17:52:54 -0800
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March 12, 1998

<HTML><PRE><BIG><B>Relocations for China Dam Are Found to Lag</BIG></B>

<B>By ERIK ECKHOLM</B>


  BEIJING -- The relocation of at least 1.2 million people to make way for
the Three Gorges Dam in central China is off to a poor start, calling into
question the official timetable for filling the dam's reservoir five years
from now, a Chinese social scientist who toured five of the most heavily
affected counties in January says. 

  Interviews with local officials and people affected by the giant project
to tame the Yangtze River suggested that the resettlement program -- said
by the government to have moved about 100,000 people so far -- has been
plagued by inadequate compensation and a shortage of new jobs and farmland
for people being relocated, official corruption and false reports of
progress by local officials to national leaders, the researcher's report
says. 

  Last November, to nationalistic fanfare, China diverted the Yangtze
around the construction site and began building the dam, which will be the
world's largest if completed as planned. The government has signed
contracts with Western companies for turbines and other equipment. 

  But opponents here and abroad, far from giving up, say they intend to
step up their campaign. They say the expected ascension next week of Zhu
Rongji, a hard-nosed economic pragmatist, as prime minister gives them new
hope that the project, expected to cost more than $25 billion, might
eventually be scaled back or even abandoned. 

  The dam has been an obsession of outgoing Prime Minister Li Peng, a
Soviet-trained engineer, while Zhu has shown no enthusiasm, said Dai Qing,
a well-known Beijing journalist and one of the few people inside China who
publicly attacks the Three Gorges Dam. 

  "Zhu has never spoken favorably about the project," Ms. Dai said in an
interview, noting that Zhu, as the deputy prime minister in charge of
finance and the economy, was notably absent from the celebration at the dam
site in November. There is no way to corroborate her view of Zhu, and some
observers believe the dam is too far along, and the government's prestige
too committed, for China to back off now. 

  In the November ceremony, President Jiang Zemin -- who as head of the
Communist Party is China's most powerful political figure -- called the
damming of the Yangtze "a remarkable feat in the history of mankind." 

  Government officials say the dam will provide huge benefits by
controlling floods, providing clean energy and opening the interior to
shipping. Critics say that the benefits are exaggerated and that the dam
will destroy the Yangtze ecosystem, bury priceless cultural relics and
cause suffering for hundreds of thousands of people. 

  Because of these concerns, the World Bank and U.S. Export-Import Bank
have not lent money to the project, and opponents hope to curb European
export credits. 

  The author of the new report on resettlement, an experienced field
researcher, has concealed his identity to protect his career. His report is
being distributed this week by the International Rivers Network and Human
Rights in China, two American-based groups that oppose the dam on
environmental and human rights grounds. 

  The Chinese government has acknowledged sporadic problems of
mismanagement but says the first phase of resettling people has generally
gone smoothly. 

  By 2003, when the dam is built and the reservoir of water behind it is
filled to its initial level, at least 500,000 people must be moved from
cities, towns and villages of Sichuan and Hubei provinces. By 2009, when
the reservoir is filled still higher, the government says a total of 1.2
million people will have to be moved, mostly to better jobs and farmlands. 

  But some people are resisting. 

  "Foot-dragging opposition to resettlement is widespread, presaging a
major crisis if the dam project continues as planned," wrote the Chinese
researcher, estimating that the number of people moved to date may be
little more than half of the official total. Given the slow pace, he wrote,
officials in one county said no official would want to be in charge of
resettlement as the year 2003 approaches because so many people will have
to be moved within such a short time, raising a specter of unrest. 

  These officials hope that at the least, the government will decide on a
lower final reservoir level, reducing the area to be inundated and thus the
number of people who will have to be resettled. 

  To improve the prospects for displaced people, the government has offered
incentives for companies to locate in the region. But the current effort to
shed excess workers in ailing state industries has instead meant rising
unemployment. One county official in Sichuan reportedly said, "There is no
way to find industrial jobs for rural settlers." 

  The report cites examples of the false reporting of resettlement data by
local officials who want to please provincial and national leaders. In one
case last fall, when Li visited a town where residents were about to be
moved, people angry about what they considered meager compensation were
barred from the meeting while others not even slated for removal were sent
in to serve as the audience for Li's speech, a county official said. 

  The researcher met with several "model resettlers," families who were
happy with their new lives and are showcased by officials as success
stories. But the small number who have been officially designated as models
have received four times the average compensation for relocation, the
report says.




<FONT  COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2>Thursday, March 12, 1998
Copyright 1998 The New York Times
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Three Gorges Campaign
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