Debate on costs and benefits of Three Gorges Dam continues

Channel NewsAsia 6 Jan 07;

CHONGQING, China: The long-running controversy over the costs and benefits of the Three Gorges Dam – the world's largest hydroelectric power project spanning Asia's longest river, the Chang Jiang – looks set to continue for years to come.

The water level in one part of the Three Gorges has risen some 70 metres since the project began. And by the time the dam is completed in 2008, it will reach 175 metres.

Andy Sung, a tour guide, said: "Now that the water level has risen, the ancient coffins hanging halfway up the cliffs appear to be lower. They can be seen more easily. Previously, we had to use binoculars."

It is believed that rising waters have engulfed thousands of years of Chinese history along the Chang Jiang.

Scores of centuries-old villages have been submerged, and along with them, their ancient traditions.

While many relics have been moved to safety, archaeologists and historians mourn the loss of their authentic settings.

Furthermore, more than a million residents have been relocated to unfamiliar grounds.

But there have been benefits too.

Before the dam was completed, tourists who want to see the Lesser Three Gorges could only sail up in motorised sampans and go for about 30 kilometres.

Now, they can go further in bigger ships for up to 50 kilometres for better scenery.

The larger barges transport cement from the factories and coal from the mines that abound in this area.

While the production and transportation of these materials pose a potential environmental hazard, experts said that is not the only source of pollution on the river.

People living alongside the river have to be taught not to treat it as a natural sewage system.

Daniel Li, a river guide, said: "I have to say, in the last ten years, we have improved a lot in this kind of situation because right now, generally speaking, no floating garbage is found on the river. It's very muddy because of the silt, not because of the pollution."

The Three Gorges Project Development Corporation has spent $2.5 million on a vessel to collect as much as 7 million cubic feet of garbage that accumulates at the dam each year.

And drought is another worry. For a river that has flooded its banks through the centuries, some are warning that drought could happen downstream, after the dam, as more water gets held back.

With the more than 2,300 metre-long dam now a reality, the lives of thousands of Chinese living along the banks have been irrevocably changed.


- CNA/so