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DAM-L LS: Asiaweek - Timebomb at Three Gorges (fwd)
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subject: LS: Asiaweek - Timebomb at Three Gorges
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China's Folly
Timebomb at Three Gorges
Asiaweek, Dec 8, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/magazine/2000/1208/as.dams_sb1.html
It's China's most formidable engineering feat since the construction of the
Great Wall - and the numbers show it. On the drawing board, state planners
proudly say that by the time the Three Gorges Dam is fully operational in
2009, it will hold back an artificial lake up to 600 km long, a kilometer
across and 175 meters deep. The 2,150-meter-wide barrier will stem the
mighty Yangzi, generating badly needed electricity, making the world's
third-longest river permanently accessible to large vessels and ending
forever the flooding that has claimed tens of thousands of lives along its
treacherous banks. That, at least, is the theory.
On the ground, the reality is different. Critics argue that the dam is a
folly from an environmental, technical and social point of view. On top of
that, it is breeding corruption on a scale breathtaking even by Chinese
standards, with one manager said to have skimmed off nearly $120 million
and sent it overseas. So, will the scheme be dropped or at least scaled
back? Not a chance. For the Communist Party, the Three Gorges is a matter
of political face, and nothing will be allowed to stand in its way.
The world's largest hydroelectric dam, at an estimated cost of $25 billion,
has challenges to match its girth. It calls, for instance, for the
resettlement of some 1.2 million people, divided almost equally between
rural and urban residents. Officials insist the program is on schedule.
Critics say that the project is marred by widespread mismanagement, graft,
falsification of relocation figures, inadequate planning and insufficient
compensation. China's normally conservative Strategy and Management journal
sees a crisis in the making. "The dam site threatens to become a hotbed for
chaos throughout the first half of the 21st century," it says. "If
resettlement problems continue to accumulate and intensify, when the water
begins to flow, those not peacefully settled could turn into an explosive
social problem."
Then there is the issue of how well the water will flow. The Yangzi is
considered among the world's most-silted rivers, and even government
planners acknowledge that special measures will be needed to prevent
excessive sedimentation building up at the dam base. These include running
off large volumes of silt-laden water during the flood season, from May to
September. The fear is that this will cause precisely the kind of surges
the dam is designed to end. And will enough water be retained for use
during the dry winter months? Yes, say the planners. Others don't agree.
Environmentalists warn that the accumulated silt will raise the reservoir's
water level, overwhelming nearby Chongqing's municipal sewage and drainage
systems. Slowed from a free-running river to a near-static lake, the Yangzi
above the Three Gorges could also become the world's largest septic tank.
Respected Chinese ecologist Liang Congjie says there is another, more
fundamental problem: The dam is simply too far upstream to harness flood
waters from the Yangzi's most troublesome tributaries. "We will be able to
control only one third of the [flood] water," he says. It's not too late to
reverse the decision on the dam.
With reports by Anne Meijdam
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