For archives, these articles are being stored on TheWE.biz website.
The purpose is to advance understandings of environmental, political,
human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues.

 
Friday, 12 October 2007
Millions forced out by China dam
China's Three Gorges Dam.

The dam is meant to alleviate flooding and provide power
The dam is meant to alleviate flooding and provide power
At least four million people are to be moved from the area around China's Three Gorges Dam amid warnings of an "environmental catastrophe".
The announcement by state media follows reports that the dam could cause landslides, soil erosion and pollution.
Critics have long warned the dam, the world's largest hydro-electric project, could cause huge environmental damage.
Millions of people are now set to be relocated to the sprawling city of Chongqing at the reservoir's west end.
The vice-mayor of the city, Yu Yuanmu, was quoted as saying the relocations were necessary to "protect the ecology of the reservoir area", which "has a vulnerable environment".
The $25bn (£12.5bn) project, across the country's biggest river, the Yangtze, is due to be completed by the end of 2008.
A boy forced to leave his home by China's Three Gorges Dam project

Some of those relocated have not been given new homes
A boy forced to leave his home by China's Three Gorges Dam project
Two weeks ago the dam's head of construction, Wang Xiaofeng, said the ecological effects of the dam could not be ignored.
Relocated 'destitute'
The problems included landslides caused by erosion on the steep hills around the dam, conflicts over land shortages, deteriorating quality of drinking water and pollution seeping from submerged industrial sites.
Landslides crashing into the reservoir have then produced huge waves that have damaged the shoreline.
Many of those destined to be shunted to Chongqing over the next 10-15 years have already been moved once.
Some were fishermen and farmers who left their age-old villages, before they were flooded, to set up home higher up the valley.
"In the best situation, many people have put all their life savings into new homes that they built," says Grainne Ryder, of the Canadian monitoring group Probe International.
"To be told now that they have to start over, you know is not only tragic but may indeed lead to more protests, followed by more state brutality."
She said previous attempts to relocate peasants to the cities had had drastic consequences too.
"They're now homeless labourers, many people were not provided the land they were promised, or compensation they were promised, so they're destitute," she says.
Critics of the Three Gorges Dam warned of all the problems now emerging years ago, says the BBC's correspondent Chris Xia.
But the project was backed by powerful figures, like former Prime Minister Li Peng and former President Jiang Zemin, so opposition was quashed.
Official recognition of the problems, he says, seems to indicate an attempt by the current leadership to distance itself from the dam's toxic legacy.
MMVII
Map of Three Gorges dam
Type: Concrete Gravity Dam
Cost: Official cost $25bn - actual cost believed to be much higher
Work began: 1993
Due for completion: 2009
Power generation: 26 turbines on left and right sides of dam. Six underground turbines planned for 2010
Power capacity: 18,000 megawatts
Reservoir: 660km long, submerging 632 sq km of land. When fully flooded, water will be 175m above sea level
Navigation: Two-way lock system became operational in 2004. One-step ship elevator due to open in 2009.
The Three Gorges Reservoir, July 17, 2007. 

Photo: Xinhua/China Daily
The Three Gorges Reservoir, July 17, 2007.
Photo: Xinhua / China Daily
4 million more people to be moved from gorges area
Xinhua 2007-10-12
CHONGQING: At least 4 million people from the Three Gorges Reservoir area are to be relocated to cities in the next 10 to 15 years, Chongqing Municipality Vice-Mayor Yu Yuanmu said.
Chongqing's 2007-20 rural and urban development plan, which was approved by the State Council on September 20, describes the resettlements as necessary to protect the ecology of the reservoir area, said Yu.
The country's most populous municipality is set for vigorous urban expansion.
More than 4 million people currently living in northeast and southwest Chongqing, where the Three Gorges Reservoir extends for 600 km, will be encouraged to resettle in the urban outskirts, about an hour's bus ride from downtown Chongqing, according to a report on sina.com.
No details about the massive relocation are available, but Yu said the ecological safety of the Three Gorges Reservoir area is threatened by the growing population.
"On one hand, the reservoir area has a vulnerable environment, and the natural conditions make large scale urbanization or serious overpopulation impossible here," said the official.
On the other hand, Yu said, the area is already suffering from overpopulation and poor conditions for industrial development.
In March 1997, the city, which sits on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, received approval to become a centrally administered municipality, the fourth after Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. It was expected to spearhead economic development in the central and western regions.
Covering 82,000 sq km, the municipality has a population of more than 27.98 million, 55 percent of whom live in rural areas.
The city's gross domestic product reached 348.6 billion yuan ($45.8 billion) last year.
However, its growth has been seriously unbalanced. The per capita GDP of Wuxi county was 3,593 yuan last year, only a tenth of that in the developed Yuzhong District.
On June 7, Chongqing and Chengdu, capital of neighboring Sichuan Province, were selected by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, as pilot cities to work towards coordinated and balanced development between urban and rural areas.
Planners estimate that Chongqing will have a population of 30 million, 16.15 million of them in urban areas, representing an urbanization rate of 53.8 percent by 2010.
The urban population will be 21.6 million of the city's total population of 31 million by 2020, representing an urbanization rate of 70 percent.
Last month, officials and experts admitted the Three Gorges Dam project had caused an array of ecological problems, including more frequent landslides and pollution, and if preventive measures are not taken, it could lead to an environmental "catastrophe".
Tan Qiwei, vice-mayor of Chongqing, told a forum in Wuhan that the shore of the reservoir had collapsed in 91 places and a total of 36 km had caved in.
Frequent geological disasters have threatened the lives of residents around the reservoir area, said Huang Xuebin, head of the headquarters for prevention and control of geological disasters in the Three Gorges Reservoir.
Construction of the project has already necessitated the resettlement of at least 1.2 million people.
The dam, the world's largest water-control facility, was launched in 1993, with a budget of 180 billion yuan.
Located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the project comprises a 185-m-high dam, completed early last year, a five-tier ship lock and the reservoir.
 
Unspeakable grief and horror
ÇáäÊÇÆÌ ÇáÃæáíÉ ááÍá ÇáÃãíÑßí ÇáÍÐÑ ááãÞÇæãÉ ÇáÚÑÇÞíÉ Ýí ÇáÝáæÌÉ (ÇáÌÒíÑÉ)
                        ...and the circus of deception killing continues...
Most recent 'Circus of Killing' click here
— 2010
— 2009
— 2008
He says, "You are quite mad, Kewe"
And of course I am.
Why, I don't believe any of it — not the bloody body, not the bloody mind, not even the bloody Universe, or is it bloody multiverse.
"It's all illusion," I say.   "Don't you know, my lad, my lassie.   The game!   The game, me girl, me boy!   Takes on interest, don't you know.   T'is me sport, till doest find a better!"
Pssssst — but all this stuff is happening down here
Let's change it!
 


  
 
For archives, these articles are being stored on TheWE.biz website.
The purpose is to advance understandings of environmental, political,
human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues.