[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
dam-l SCMP: Three Gorges should be delayed, experts warn
May 3, 2000
Three Gorges should be delayed, experts warn
JASPER BECKER
A group of 53 senior engineers, water management
experts and academics has sent a petition to the top
leadership urging a rethink on the progress of the
Three Gorges Dam project.
The petition came as more corruption scandals linked
to the gigantic project came to light. The latest
concerned a company in Zhengzhou, Henan
province, which allegedly embezzled money and
loans earmarked for the project.
The petition, dated March 3, said the project's main
reservoir should not be filled up by 2009 to allow
more time to monitor silting and ease pressure in the
resettlement of more than 1.5 million people.
It was written by Li Qinkan, a leading hydrologist
who worked on the dam's original feasibility study.
About one-third of the signatories are former
members of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference - the political advisory body
- who in the late 1980s urged the State Council not to
proceed with the Three Gorges project.
The project - building a giant hydropower dam over
the Yangtze River near Chongqing - was approved by
National People's Congress in 1992. Under the
original plan, the project was expected to cost about
90 billion yuan (HK$84.5 billion). However, it is
reported to have soared to more than 200 billion
yuan.
The petition said officials were wrong to change the
original plan, which foresaw restricting water levels to
156 metres for the first 10 years of operation and only
raising water to 175 metres between the dam's 17th
and 20th year of operation.
According to the petition, officials in 1997 changed
the plans: the water level is now scheduled to rise to
175 metres in the sixth year of operation, 2009, in
order to maximise the dam's power output.
Filling the reservoir to the maximum 175 metres will
raise the Yangtze River more than 10 metres at
Chongqing city, submerging drainage outlets and
backing up the city's sewage.
At the 175-metre water level, more silt is expected to
be deposited as well, blocking shipping traffic along
the Yangtze and raising water levels even higher
during the first 20 years of operation, which could
force an additional 300,000 people to leave their
homes.
Dam officials now propose building more dams on
Yangtze tributaries flowing into the Three Gorges
reservoir to reduce the inflow and build-up of silt by
about half. But the experts' petition says the proposed
Xiluodu and Xiang Jiaba dams on the upper Jinsha
river will have no effect on the sand expected to be
deposited at the reservoir's upper end.
Keeping the Three Gorges reservoir at 156 metres
would keep Chongqing harbour and the mouth of
Jialing river - a Yangtze tributary that flows through
Chongqing - silt-free and reduce the number of
people who have to be moved by an estimated
520,000.
________________________________
Doris Shen
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
doris@irn.org
tel: 510.848.1155 ext. 317
fax: 510.848.1008
IRN http://www.irn.org
learn how you can help stop Three Gorges Dam http://www.floodwallstreet.org
IRN China Page http://www.hk-sanxia.org