http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/three-gorges-dam-could-be-huge-disaster/2007/09/26/1190486394786.html
Three Gorges Dam 'could be huge disaster' September 27, 2007 SENIOR Chinese officials have admitted the Three Gorges Dam is at risk of becoming a "catastrophic" environmental disaster if accumulating threats are not dealt with promptly. Those officials, who previously defended the world's biggest hydropower project as an engineering and economic miracle, spoke at a forum organised by the State Council, China's cabinet, on Tuesday in Wuhan. The forum, called to discuss the dam's spiralling environmental problems, concluded that if no preventive measures were taken, the project could lead to catastrophe, China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported. The director of the Government's Three Gorges construction body, Wang Xiaofeng, told the forum that Beijing had largely overcome many challenges to the dam project - including funding, technology and the massive displacement of people - but it now had to face up to the increasing ecological threats. These included erosion and landslides, pollution and "ecological deterioration" caused by "irrational development" along the river, he said. "We absolutely cannot relax our guard against ecological and environmental security problems created by the Three Gorges project," Mr Wang said. Since building the $A28.6 billion dam began almost two decades ago, officials have promoted it as a way to provide clean energy, create jobs and development and mitigate deadly floods along the mighty Yangtze River. Critics have claimed that the giant concrete barrier retains huge amounts of sediment and nutrients, reducing fish stocks and viability of farmland downstream as well as creating greater instability in an already geologically unstable region. A senior engineer at the forum also expressed concerns about landslides threatening the densely populated hills along the river. "Regular geological disasters are a severe threat to the lives of residents around the dam," Huang Xuebin said. He described landslides into the dam waters creating waves dozens of metres high that then crashed into surrounding shores, creating more damage. Local officials reported that water quality in tributaries of the Yangtze had declined and pollution caused by sediment build-up had increased algae in local rivers. Last month experts partly blamed the Three Gorges Dam for declining water quality in China's largest freshwater lake, the Poyang. Xinhua also released a separate, positive report on the forum, headlined "Three Gorges environment and construction progressing well". The negative article was headlined "Three Gorges faces many environmental problems". The People's Daily, the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, yesterday ran the positive version of the story. The good news was that tensions among residents who had been resettled had eased and water quality in the dam was "generally stable". Xinhua also reported that tens of billions of yuan had been spent to prevent pollution and geological disasters by tree planting, measures to maintain species diversification, shutting 1500 polluting industrial and mining enterprises and building 70 sewage and waste treatment plants. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
