But the down side being of such an important excavation, one hundred and fifty towns with a total population of over 1 million people will have to be relocated. As a reservoir of 40 billion cubic yards, drowning half of the famous scenery of the ‘Three Gorges Dam’ as the water level rises 300ft. Here the steep incline of the ‘Three Gorges Dike’ is expected to form a spectacular waterfall, which would turn out good for the economy as it is predicted to attract a rush load of tourists when completed. Along with this the remaining scenery’s of the Badong Shennong stream, the Gezi River Stone Forest and the Shuangxi Karst Caves will continue to attract tourists. Senior Engineer Li Junlin working at the site believes that he is not the only expert who thinks this is a great idea for both social and environmental aspects of the country, but believes that other experts from home and from aboard also think it is a great idea to take China forward into the modern world.
The Chinese authorities are serious over the scheme as Lu Yomei, the Urban President of the China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation believes the total cost could go up to US$24 billion, so they clearly see it as a necessary investment if they aren’t willing to spend that much money. The Chinese government are being very honest and saying that it doesn’t mean that it will produce cheap electricity, so with a quarter of the financial support coming from abroad, it is said the rest is being raised via taxes through a surcharge on electricity bills. They believe it is a necessary step forward into the modernised world, which was also stated in a speech by the Chinese President Jiang Zemin at the ceremony to mark the success of the river-damming, on November 8th 1997, in the United States.
Devastating floods cost the Chinese authority millions of pounds to clear up. And when they keep happening more than often, it becomes too expensive for the government’s budget to cope with; the money is more or less being wasted every time the banks of the ‘mighty’ Yangtze River give way. In addition to this the Chinese authority believe that the project will create millions of jobs earning with it 520 billion Yuan’s in industrial output. The government believe if everything goes according to plan and according to its schedule the first batch of four generators will be in use by 2003 producing a combined capacity of 2.8 million kilowatts, after 11 years of constructing. The remaining generators are predicted to be completed by 2009. When the generators will be able to generate a total of 293 billion kWh. If successful the Chinese government will be able to pay all loans and interests invested into the project by large international firms and banks in two or three years after the completion of the dam.
The government believe that building the ‘Three Gorges Dam’ will help the environment much more than the environmentalists believe. If the controversial hydroelectric dam is built, it will have twenty-six generators producing 18.2 million kilowatts of power. This is enough to provide ten per cent of China’s population with electricity across the country. According to Mr Lu of the Corporation, it is expected that the amount of non-renewable fuels used around the country will drop extraordinarily. For instance it will reduce China’s coal burning by 40 million tons a year, and will reduce the emission of harmful gases to the atmosphere like carbon-dioxide by 120 million tons and the emission of sulphur dioxide is also forecasted to drop by 1 or 2 million tons a year, along with the emission of monoxide being cut down to more than 10,000 tons a year. They are also stressing that the development of the hydroelectric dam wouldn’t affect navigation on China’s leading transportation system along the Yangtze River.
Even though the government seem very optimistic about the construction and completion of the dam, there are a number of problems occurring with the resettlement of 1.2 million people and not only this, but distribution of compensation money has also been fairly slow. A village, Zhujiawan, has so far resettled 23,000 of the people needed to be reallocated. It is expected the reallocation of the residents living in the 1,084 sq km of the reservoir will cost approximately 100 billion Yuan’s. And an official from the Corporation said: “In spite of the preliminary success, even more difficulties are involved in the resettlement drive, but we are optimistic with its final success”
The IRN believe the dam could become of a hazard during landslides and earthquakes, which are possible in the surrounding regions. And insist that the government haven’t taken such events into their account. But Senior Engineer Li Junlin says: “We have done more research work on the situation than foreign experts and everything is in our hands”.
But not even this has favoured people on to their side. Since its planning days the construction of the ‘Three Gorges Dam’ has always been widely criticised by the people and environmentalists all over the world. Leading the attack is the International Rivers Network.
The International Rivers Network (IRN) is an association, which helps protect people’s social and environmental rights. And believe that a large majority of people within China have been silenced by the government. The IRN has been attracting the attention of banks and other international businesses that are investing large amounts of money to the project, to consider environmental issues. Not only this, but the IRN is also trying to show these large international businesses that their money invested is not being put to good use. Already the project is facing massive corruption, spiralling costs, technological problems and major resettlement difficulties. And to the government’s further disarray, all this had been forecasted by the IRN in 1989 when the planning of the ‘Three Gorges Dam’ first began. Also in 1989 the construction of the dam was halted by the Chinese authorities due to strong citizen protests, which forced the government to do so. But once again quickly proceeded under Premier Li Peng. In 1994 it seemed like the International Rivers Network had hit the jackpot. After five years of continuous protesting, it finally seemed as it was paying off. Support from the coalition of the United States environment, development and human rights groups encouraged United States administration not to hold any financial support for the project. In addition to this the National Security Council (NSC) advised the United States government not to get involved with the project in any way, and then another huge surprise in the opposition of the dam, the World Bank who traditionally has an unpopular reputation for its contribution to projects likewise in developing countries is also not lending any financial support towards the ‘Three Gorges Dam’.
Although recent scientific investigations from human rights groups from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) say that the ‘Three Gorges Dam’ could only have minimal affects on the ecological and environmental issues brought up by the IRN. According to the Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chen Yiyu the construction of the dam is more likely to affect historical sites, as species of rare animals/fish and plants are all being preserved.
Personally I think the dam is an excellent idea for China to move forward as an economically wealthy nation. I can see why people are against the project and truly it depends on, what you believe in? But if there was a huge risk or doubt at all about the construction of the ‘Three Gorges Dam, I wouldn’t think the Chinese government would have gone through with the scheme as it involves a lot of money and to implement such a scheme close to destroying the country’s leading tourist and economical attraction without putting any thought or some ‘Hard-Core’ research into the planning, I really cant see China or any other country taking such a big risk.
