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dam-l State Council Decision Proves Correct / Press Advisory, Apr 3 1999
Press Advisory
April 3, 1999
Doris Shen
Tel: 510.848.1155 ext. 317
Tel: 510.528.7188
Fax: 510-848-1008
threegorges@irn.org
State Council Decision Proves Correct:
Three Gorges Project Opponent Dai Qing calls for Full Scale Review
on Tenth Anniversary of Historic Decision
In a statement released in Washington D.C. today China's leading critic of the
Three Gorges Dam, Ms. Dai Qing, expressed how the project's mounting problems
mirror the concerns that caused China's State Council ten years ago today to
shelve the country's plans to build the dam.
Ms. Dai described how the State Council's decision represented the first time
that Chinese civil society succeeded in opening-up and utilizing public debate
to influence a major national issue. But then Premiere Li Peng used the
political repression he launched two months later at Tiananmen Square to run a
three-year missinformation campaign within the party to sidestep the Council’s
decision and force the acceptance of the Three Gorges Dam.
Now five years into construction, Ms Dai points out how cost overruns are
expected to approach ten times the approved budget, that actual numbers of
resettlers will near two million - 2.5 times initial projections, that there
are massive and likely unsolvable problems with resettlement generally, and
that there is widespread recognition that the dam will have only marginal
impacts for flood management while posing a major problems for river
transportation.
"As the project progresses, these economic, technical and social problems are
likely to worsen. The government should again allow unbiased experts the
opportunity to review this project to determine if it still represents an
appropriate and useful element in China's development or if it is merely a
monument to flawed planning and should be abandoned." said Ms. Dai.
Ms. Dai described how much of the responsibility for the destruction taking
place at Three Gorges lies beyond China's borders. "Were it not for the
technical and financial assistance provided by foreign governments and foreign
companies, the Three Gorges Dam could not be built. These governments and
companies were fully aware of the problems associated with this project, but
nonetheless chose to profit from the most socially and environmentally
destructive project in the world today. Investment firms such as Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter and Credit Suisse First Boston have chosen to support the
single largest non-performing asset in the history of finance" her statement
read.
She calls for an end to foreign support for the dam and calls on the
international community to "lend its technical and financial support to those
initiatives that will truly enhance the well being of the people of China.”
“A decision to halt construction on the Three Gorges Dam would not be without
precedent,” said Owen Lammers, Vice President of International Rivers Network.
”In 1989 the massive Nagymaros dam was stopped at 90% completion and three
years ago the largest dam under construction in Southeast Asia, the Bakun Dam,
was also halted. Rationale for constructing both projects was more political
than beneficial to the country’s people.”
Statement by Dai Qing:
April 3, 1989
Washington D.C.
Email: DaiQing@wwic.si.edu
Tel: 202-232-1803
Statement by Ms. Dai Qing on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of
China's Decision Not to Proceed with the Three Gorges Dam.
Ten years ago today, April 3, 1989, China's State Council took a historic
decision not to build the Three Gorges Dam. Noting that the extensive problems
the project would pose for China's economy and yet to be resolved plans to
address the social, cultural and environmental impacts, the State Council
concluded that the government should not address the Three Gorges question for
another five years.
That decision by the State Council followed unprecedented public debate within
the media, allowing critical information surrounding the dam's potential
impacts to be made available to decision makers. This was the first time that
China’s civil society including sociologists, engineers and political
scientists, succeeded in opening public debate on such a national issue.
Only after the Tiananmen Square massacre two months later, and the dramatic
change in China's political climate, was it possible for then Premier Li Peng
to force the Three Gorges Dam through the People's Congress in 1992. The
decision to build the project was not only made with backhanded political
motives, but also in complete disregard to the previous State Council Decision
and Planning Committee decisions to shelve the project. Normal procedures were
violated at the National People's Congress in 1992; information regarding
sedimentation, resettlement, flood control, and impact on the environment was
covered up or falsified. Instead the project was resurrected and ordered to
"zao shang kuai shang", that is, the project was to be "built quickly at dawn".
Now in its fifth full year of construction, many of the problems that concerned
the State Council ten years ago are manifesting themselves as episode one of
the nightmare that is the Three Gorges Dam.
The original cost of 60 billion Rmb approved in 1992 is now very much out of
date. By 1993, cost estimates had reached Rmb 120 billion and official
estimates are now as high as Rmb 360 billion.
Unofficial estimates go much higher. President Jiang Zemin was told during a
visit to the dam site in 1995 that the project would cost upwards of Rmb 600
billion (US$72 billion), ten times the cost approved by the People's Congress
three years earlier. This escalating budget is creating significant financial
problems for the project, forcing the courting of foreign financing. News in
the past year has reported that corruption and bad construction is plaguing
many other projects in China including Three Gorges related infrastructure.
Because the dam will not be able to generate anywhere close to the income
necessary to pay back such debts, the Three Gorges Dam will represent nothing
more than a significant financial burden for China. This, combined with the
level of corruption and bad construction associated with other foreign financed
infrastructure projects, could negatively effect China's credit rating.
Silenced are the ovations by project proponents touting the dam’s humanitarian
flood management benefits. Those inflated benefits washed into the sea during
last summer's devastating floods. It became known that even if the dam were
built, it would have had only a marginal impact on such a disaster- anticipated
to occur at least once every 40 years. Moreover, the dam's construction was
responsible for many of the deaths as its ballooning budget took away the
financial resource necessary for maintaining the dikes and overflow lakes which
are the most critical components of the Yangtze's flood management system.
Quieted as well are the transportation engineers who claimed the dam would
improve river navigation. It is known now that this will only further
complicate river navigation. The notorious ship elevator to expeditiously move
ships never made it past the drawing board. The five-step lock system may not
be functional for decades because of geologic instability rendering it's use
unsafe. Moreover, even when completed, ship captains concur that it is more
efficient to utilize a land bridge and a second boat to get around the dam than
to use the proposed ship locks.
The official figure of 800,000 relocatees used by project proponents to
narrowly win project approval in the People's Congress in 1992 has now risen
60% to 1.3 million. But many experts concur that the actual number would be
much closer to 2 million. This further increases the budget of the project.
Resettlement activities under way so far are so woefully inadequate, under
funded, behind schedule, and mismanaged that it will be impossible for
successful resettlement to occur.
One of the saddest issues related to the dam's construction is the loss of
Chinese cultural and historical antiquities. Monies earmarked for salvage
archaeology have been nowhere near the amounts necessary to adequately excavate
thousands of national treasures located in the future reservoir area. The
project has done more to support the illegal trade of Chinese relics from the
Three Gorges area than it has for the Chinese people.
As the project progresses, these economic, technical, and social problems are
likely to worsen. This is why there must again be a free and open debate
regarding this very dangerous project. There must be a public airing of these
issues. The government should again allow unbiased experts the opportunity to
review this project to determine if it still represents an appropriate and
useful element in China's development or if it is merely a monument to flawed
planning and should be abandoned. Such experts must investigate all safety
aspects of the project, including the whole spectrum of technical, economic,
social, cultural, and environmental issues.
This dam is not just China's responsibility. Were it not for the technical and
financial assistance provided by foreign governments and companies, the Three
Gorges Dam could not be built. Siemens, General Electric, GEC Alsthom, ABB,
and Kvaerner have all secured contracts for expensive equipment. French,
Swiss, British, Canadian and German governments have in turn made export credit
available for these companies. The travesty unfolding at Sandouping is indeed
the world's responsibility.
These governments and companies were fully aware of the problems associated
with the dam, but nonetheless chose to profit from what is the most socially
and environmentally destructive project in the world today. Investment firms
such as Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Credit Suisse First Boston have chosen
to support the single largest non-performing asset in the history of finance.
China has had many achievements, but like all other countries we too can make
mistakes. We have the capability to meet the energy, flood management,
transportation and development needs in the Yangtze watershed, but not so long
as the Three Gorges Dam continues to be disguised as the solution. I call on
the international community to cease providing support for this political
monument masquerading as a development project. Instead, I hope the
international community will begin to lend its technical and financial support
to those initiatives that will truly enhance the well being of the people of
China.
___________________________________
Ms. Dai Qing led the efforts to get the Three Gorges Dam canceled in 1989. She
published the now famous book Yangtze! Yangtze!, which featured articles by
renowned experts critical of all aspects of the Three Gorges project. Ms. Dai
spent ten months in solitary confinement following the Tiananmen Square
crackdown, and since her release in 1990, Yangtze! Yangtze! has been
banned and
she is no longer allowed to publish. Since her release, she began again her
campaign to publicize issues surrounding the Three Gorges project. In 1996 she
published a second book of essays critical of the dam, titled The River Dragon
Has Come!. Ms. Dai resides in Beijing, but is currently on a fellowship with
the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. For more information please see
http://www.irn.org
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