Brady Yauch for Probe International The Three Gorges dam’s celebrated flood-storage capacities are facing renewed criticism in the wake of recent floods that have, again, highlighted its shortcomings. According to Dr. Wang Weiluo, a Chinese engineer who participated in the Three Gorges feasibility study, the Three Gorges dam will never be able to work according [...]
Scores dead in China floods
Al Jazeera Floods sweeping through northeastern China have left more than 100 people dead or missing after 10 days of downpours. Waters have cut off roads, left villages inaccessible and knocked out communications and water supplies in the hardest-hit areas, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. At least 592,000 residents were evacuated from [...]
Three Gorges Dam’s Flood-Control Function Questioned
By Hsin-Yi Lin for Epoch Times Severe flooding in southern China has put in question the flood-control and other functions of China’s most ambitious, costliest, and controversial water-control project—the Three Gorges Dam. At 8 a.m. on July 20, China’s Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River had the highest peak flow since its completion. Water [...]
Science uproar stalls hydropower project
Shanghai Daily SOME of China’s leading scientists have won an environmental review of a controversial dam proposed for the country’s largest freshwater lake. Officials of Jiangxi Province government have conceded that the planned dam and hydropower project might harm the wildlife and environment of the 3,500-square-kilometer Poyang Lake. They have dropped the hydrostation in favor [...]
“What I asked for and why”: Ren Xinghui’s epic quest to track down the costs of the Three Gorges dam
Ren Xinghui for Probe International In the afternoon of October 12, 2009, Chinese citizen, taxpayer, electricity consumer, and law graduate, Ren Xinghui, using the law his government had enshrined to protect Chinese citizens’ rights to information about government expenditures, exercised his right: he went to the offices of the Ministry of Finance and submitted a [...]
Plan to rebuild Yushu in three years
By Fu Wen for Global Times The Qinghai government intends to rebuild earthquake-devastated Yushu in three years and then transform the prefecture into an ecological tourism destination after an additional two years. Emergency rescue work at the earthquake site ended Saturday. The April 14 earthquake killed at least 2,220 people. Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who [...]
Three Gorges developer, WWF join hands in Yangtze ecosystem protection
Xinhua BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) — The China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC) will cooperate with the World Wide Fund for Nature to limit the negative impact of the Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze’s ecosystem. According to the memoranda of understanding signed in Beijing Sunday, the two sides will use international standards for sustainable hydropower [...]
The Thaw at the Roof of the World
By ORVILLE SCHELL | NY Times Because the Tibetan Plateau and its environs shelter the largest perennial ice mass on the planet after the Arctic and Antarctica, it has come to be known as “the Third Pole.” Its snowfields and glaciers feed almost every major river system of Asia during hot, dry seasons when the [...]
China Reins in Dam Builders
By Antoaneta Bezlova for IPS Last week, China’s environmental watchdog suspended approval for hydropower stations along the middle reaches of the Jinsha (Yangtze) river. It made the decision after finding out that two of the mainland’s biggest power companies have begun illegal construction to dam the river. The announcement comes on the heels of a [...]
China dam safety under pressure ahead of flood season
From Beijing and XinhuaNet… China has the world’s largest number of reservoirs, but “extreme weather may pose a big threat to dam safety,” the Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei said in a video conference Tuesday. “Special purpose inspections on dams also show many of them are not in good condition. Dam safety is in [...]
