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China to address pollution, disasters, relocation
problems in Three Gorges region
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The Washington Post
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SHANGHAI — China has admitted that its showcase Three
Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric project,
has caused a slew of urgent environmental, geologic and
economic problems.
The State Council, or Cabinet, made the rare admission
in a statement late Wednesday that said the $23 billion
project was successful but requires action to curb
pollution, counter risks of natural disasters and
improve the living standards of the 1.4 million people
who were forced to relocate.
“While the Three Gorges project has brought great and
comprehensive benefits, there are problems that must be
urgently resolved in the resettlement and wealth-making
of immigrants, environmental protection and geological
disaster prevention,” it said.
The statement outlines plans for a cleaner, safer and
more sustainable future for the Three Gorges region, a
scenic section of the Yangtze River that was dammed to
create a 410-mile (660-kilometer) -long reservoir.
It said public services and conditions need to be
improved for the people moved to make way for the
project.
“We must always put people first to ensure people’s
livelihood, environmental protection and balanced,
sustainable development,” it said.
“We must strengthen ecological protection and control
pollution in the reservoir area ... and the prevention
and control of geological disasters.”
The Three Gorges Dam, touted as the best way to end
centuries of flooding along the Yangtze and provide
power for China’s industrial boom, has been
controversial since it was first conceived decades ago.
Some geologists have warned that damming up too much
water in the reservoir carries a heightened risk of
landslides, earthquakes and prolonged damage to the
river’s ecology.
The government has acknowledged that filling the
reservoir has increased the frequency of earthquakes,
but denied that it had anything to do with a powerful
quake to the northwest in Sichuan on May 12, 2008, that
killed 87,000 people.
Pressure on the Yangtze as a source of water for
industry, homes, farming, energy and shipping has
mounted amid one of the region’s worst droughts in
decades.
“As to the irrigation and water supply issues, demand
for water has increased rapidly along the middle reaches
downstream,” the newspaper China Daily cited Wang
Jingquan, an official with the Yangtze River Water
Resource Committee, as saying.
“Water pollution in these areas has made the situation
worse,” he added.
A detailed report published last year by the Ministry of
Environmental Protection found widespread contamination
of Yangtze tributaries and lakes with copper, zinc, lead
and ammonium. New water treatment plants in Chongqing,
the biggest city upriver from the dam, have helped but
not eliminated the problem, the ministry said.
Hundreds of millions of people and much of China’s
industry and inland shipping depend on the Yangtze,
China’s biggest watershed. But drinking water is scarce,
crops are withering and the low flows along many rivers
have affected hydroelectric plants, compounding
widespread power shortages.
Shipping is stalled at some points downstream from the
dam, and water authorities in the middle reaches of the
river said they began extra dredging work this week to
prevent the problem from worsening.
Communities downstream from the Three Gorges have begun
diverting flows from the Yangtze to restore parched
water supplies in central China’s Hunan and Hubei
provinces, the official Xinhua News Agency reported
Thursday, citing water officials in Hunan’s Huarong
county.
The Three Gorges Power Co., operator of the massive dam,
has been discharging extra amounts of water to help
fight the drought.
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