[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

dam-l Three Gorges Questioned


THREE GORGES DAM QUESTIONED AS CHINA
FLOOD SAVIOR 


By Scott Hillis 

BEIJING - As China's worst floods in more than four
decades rage along the Yangtze River, fresh debate
has broken out over whether the massive Three
Gorges Dam project will finally stop nature's fury or
only make it worse. 

Beijing has touted the $29 billion project as the
answer to annual flooding along the 5,989-km
(3,721-mile) Yangtze, which has killed millions of
people in China's fertile heartland this century alone. 

But critics, their arguments fuelled by the
widespread flood damage this year, are blasting the
dam as a colossal white elephant that has siphoned
off funds badly needed to fix existing flood control
works. 

Opponents, including Chinese dissident Dai Qing
whose book "Yangtze! Yangtze!" criticising the
project is banned in China, also charge the dam has
created a false sense of security among local
officials. 

"There is no need to build this expensive,
environmentally disastrous and culturally destructive
dam," the Berkeley, California-based International
Rivers Network quoted Dai as saying recently. 

"Because the Three Gorges Dam is absorbing such
massive amounts of public funds...the central and
local governments cannot spare money for
necessary strengthening of embankments," Dai
said. 

Dai also claims that authorities at the dam site have
made the floods downstream worse by releasing
more water than normal into the lower reaches
because the rapid flow is endangering work on the
dam. 

Although officials in charge of the Three Gorges
project have not been available for comment, Beijing
has trotted out a line-up of scholars and officials to
defend the giant dam. 

"If there were the big dam this year, the water level in
the lower reaches would not have been that high and
the flood control task would not have been that
arduous," Zhao Chunming, vice director of the State
Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, told
reporters last week. 

This year's flooding, the worst since 1954, has killed
more than 2,000 people and forced nearly 14 million
to flee their homes. It has caused at least $4.8
billion in damage, according to the last official
estimate, released several weeks ago. 

"The prevailing flood situation would be far less
severe if the Three Gorges project were in operation,"
the Xinhua news agency last month quoted water
conversationist Professor Liu Chongrong as saying. 

Dai counters that floods in the lower reaches are
largely fed by the Li, Yuan, Zi, Qing and Xiang rivers,
tributaries of the Yangtze that she says are being
overlooked by officials as the Three Gorges grabs
the spotlight. 

International River Networks president Philip
Williams has urged China to pursue more
"sophisticated" methods of flood control, saying that
experience in the United States showed dams were
not the answer. 

"What's happening now is a vivid illustration of the
failure of China's flood control policies," Williams
said in a recent statement. 

"China is building gigantic projects such as the
Three Gorges and Xiaolangdi dams while neglecting
their existing flood management system," Williams
said. The Xiaolangdi project is aimed at controlling
floods along northern China's Yellow River. 

Three Gorges defender Professor Liu also
acknowledged the need to keep other defences in
tip-top shape. 

"The project will not guarantee total flood control
along the Yangtze, and various other flood diversion
projects are needed in the middle and lower reaches
of the river, as well as new reservoirs and dredging
operations," Liu said. 

(C) Reuters Limited 1998. 

_____________________________________________________________

Michael Smith
Environmental Conservation Program
University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH 03824

mlsmith@christa.unh.edu