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

DAM-L Probe Int'l on Three Gorges: aug 22/01

----- Forwarded message from ProbeInternational@e-p-r-f.org -----

X-UIDL: $6T"!nmp!!lh,"!_D^"!
Return-path: <ProbeInternational@e-p-r-f.org>
Received: from webterminator19.crystaltech.com (mail1.crystaltech.com [216.119.106.20])
	by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA12199
	for <dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>; Wed, 22 Aug 2001 16:10:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: ProbeInternational@e-p-r-f.org
Received: from mail.e-p-r-f.org [216.119.106.41] by webterminator19.crystaltech.com with ESMTP
	 (SMTPD32-6.06) id A1D11560298; Wed, 22 Aug 2001 13:11:00 -0700
Content-Type: text/html
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 13:10:09 -0700
Subject: August 22, 2001
To: dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca
Message-ID: <200108221311585.SM01164@mail.e-p-r-f.org>


<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head><title>August 22, 2001</title></head>
<body>

<table bordercolor="#CC0000" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="10" border="2" width="420">
<tr>
    <td width="400" align="left">
	<font size="2" face="arial, helvetica">
	<img src="http://www.probeinternational.org/pi/3g/images/tgp_news.jpg" border=0 alt="Three Gorges Probe">

<h3>August 22, 2001</h3>

Our web site is <a href="http://www.probeinternational.org/pi/3g">www.probeinternational.org/pi/3g</a>

<hr size="3" width="400" color="#CC0000">
<font color="#CC0000" size="+1">Following up on Mao's big idea</font>
<br>China's government is favouring a water diversion plan once championed by Chairman Mao to help alleviate northern China's water crisis. But, says <b>Probe International's Dai Qing</b>, it doesn't matter to the government whether it works or not.<br>
<b>The Economist</b>,  August 18, 2001
<br><br>
With much of northern China fast running out of water, the government is favouring a plan championed by Chairman Mao half a century ago. Water would be diverted to the north from the Yangtze River basin hundreds of kilometres to the south. Chinese officials say work on what would be one of the world's biggest water diversion schemes is likely to start next year. But quite apart from being colossally expensive, the project may well do more harm than good. <P>
Beijing gets most of its drinking water from a single reservoir which these days, thanks to successive droughts and soaring comsumption, is a third as full as it once was. Farmers and industries are pumping water out of the ground so fast that in 15 years Beijing's water table will be drained. The Yellow River, on which much of northern China depends for its industry and agriculture, now often dries up before reaching the sea. More than half of China's cities suffer water shortages. This year has seen one of the worst droughts in decades. <P>
But some experts are sceptical about the scheme, much as it appeals to a leadership fond of grandiose solutions to ancient problems. So far, though, it has not aroused the bitter controversy that the equally vast plan to dam the Yangtze at the Three Gorges did before its approval in 1992. In the north, water is needed badly and the project does not threaten an area as beloved as the scenic Three Gorges. But like the earlier one, the new scheme will do considerable damage to the environment and cause massive disruption to many lives. It will also provide no more than a partial solution to China's problem. <P>
The diverted water would follow three main routes. The western section would involve tunnelling through mountains to link the headwaters of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. The central route would require building a canal and aqueduct some 1,240 km (770 miles) long to the Beijing area. The 1,150 km eastern route would mostly follow existing water courses, including that of the ancient Grand Canal. <P>
For the time being, Chinese officials are focusing on the technically less challenging central and eastern routes, which would cost some $20 billion. The eastern route, however, presents a major problem – the water would pass through some of the country's most polluted rivers. Bringing in a supply of polluted water would be of very little use to northern China. <P>
The central route is therefore likely to be the first to get under way and could be completed by 2010. But there are considerable drawbacks to this part of the plan too. The level of the Danjiangkou reservoir would need to be raised by 13 metres (43 feet). More than 200,000 people would have to move. Many would move higher up the surrounding hills, chopping down forest and exacerbating already serious soil erosion. Downriver of the Danjiangkou dam, the water level of the Han River, a major tributary of the Yangtze, would drop, making it more prone to fish-killing algae. Officials say that this problem could be alleviated by pumping water from the Three Gorges reservoir into the Han River. <P>
Some experts in Beijing argue for a different tack. Tackling polluting, using recycled water and forcing people to save water by raising absurdly low prices would go a long way towards alleviating the north's problems, they say. Once these measures were in place, the diversion plan could be reconsidered.  <P>
<b>One of China's best-known critics of the government's big water projects, Dai Qing, says officials have suppressed debate about the scheme. "They'll make a lot of money on the side through corruption," she argues. "It doesn't matter to them whether it works or not."<b> <P><br><br>

<hr size="3" width="400" color="#CC0000"><p>Three Gorges Probe News Service:</p>
<p>To <a href="http://www.probeinternational.org/pi/3g/index.cfm#news">subscribe or unsubscribe</a> to Three Gorges Probe 
news service, please visit our <a href="http://www.probeinternational.org/pi/index.cfm#news">web site</a>.</p>
<p>To contact the editor, please e-mail <a href="mailto:ProbeInternational@e-p-r-f.org">ProbeInternational@e-p-r-f.org</a>.</p>

</font>
	</td>
	</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

----- End of forwarded message from ProbeInternational@e-p-r-f.org -----