Friday May 19, 2006 rci The completion of China's Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River grows ever closer. Workers will pour the last concrete on the structure on Saturday. The dam will span 2,309 metres. The designers of the project expect it to generate huge amounts of hydroelectric power and reduce floods on the Yangtze. Environmentalist critics says the dam is already causing problems even before its completion. These include a deterioration of water quality, the diminishment of fish species and silt that causes erosion of the river's banks. The dam project has caused the resettlement of one million Chinese. The government said this week that it will support them financially for 20 years.
2003
Sunday Jun 1, 2003 cbc
CHINA SET TO HARNESS ENERGY OF YANGTSE
Chinese authorities are ready to fill the reservoir for what will
eventually be the largest hydroelectric project in the world, and
possibly one of the largest ecological disasters.
Two Thirds of Chinese Cities Facing Water Shortages
BEIJING, May 11, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Nearly two thirds of China's cities are facing a water shortage, while more than half of the country's rivers have been polluted, the official Xinhua news agency reported Thursday.
Zhou Wenzhi, vice-minister of water resources, told a seminar in the northern city of Tianjin that 400 of China's 668 cities are short of water, and that 100 faced serious problems.
He said Chinese cities have a total annual water shortage of six billion cubic meters (210 billion cubic feet), adding that China's per capita water resource is less than one quarter of the world average.
Officials have already warned the amount of water per head is likely to decrease by up to 20 percent before 2030 because of the rapid growth of the population.
Zhou said China needed to introduce the concept of water saving and implement programs to protect the country's water resources.
He added that around half the country's rivers and more than 90 percent of its urban water resources had been polluted to some degree.
China currently has an official population of 1.259 billion, but it is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by 2030 despite strict birth control policies. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
Thanks to Dr. Guy Stanley Prof Economist
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