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dam-l (Fwd) China to Hire Foreign Engineers
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Date sent: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 13:03:37 -0700
From: Doris Shen <threegorges@irn.org>
Subject: China to Hire Foreign Engineers
To: irn-three-gorges@igc.org
APRIL 19, 05:16 EDT
China To Hire Foreign Engineers
BEIJING (AP) — Foreign engineers will be hired to
oversee the construction of the Three Gorges Dam
because Chinese inspectors are susceptible to
corruption, a newspaper reported today.
Consultants from foreign engineering companies will
take responsibility for oversight of the project
immediately, Lu Youmei, the director of the
government's Three Gorges Construction and
Development Co., was quoted as saying by the
Workers Daily.
Chinese overseers were too friendly with the officials
they are supposed to inspect, the report quoted Lu as
saying. Corruption is widely blamed in China for severe
problems with shoddy construction on the
government's massive infrastructure projects.
Just last week, the state-run news media reported
Chinese engineering consultants checked the
construction of the dam and found it passed strict
quality controls.
But without citing any Chinese consulting firms by
name, Lu warned they risked losing business if they
develop ``relationships as close as brothers'' and
refuse to criticize those they are supposed to be
inspecting.
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in central
China will be the largest hydroelectric project in the
world. It has strong backing from Li Peng, the chairman
of the National People's Congress who is No. 2 in the
hierarchy of the ruling Communist Party.
Negotiations on hiring foreign consulting firms were in
the final phase, the newspaper reported.
More than 1 million people must be relocated from
areas that will be flooded by the reservoir from the
new dam. Critics have argued the project is
ill-conceived because the same goals of flood control
and power generation could be accomplished with
smaller, cheaper dams.
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