Currently, the navigation course on the Yangtze River provides access to vessels with 3,000 dead-weight- tonnage, said Feng Zhengpeng, an official with the Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corporation. When the water level of the Three Gorges reservoir reaches 156 meters, the width of the navigation course will expand to more than 150 meters, with the depth exceeding 3.5 meters. This allows the non-stop passage of vessels with 10,000 dead-weight-tonnage from Shanghai, located at the estuary of the Yangtze, to Chongqing, on the upper reaches of the river, Feng said. With improving navigation conditions, ships will sail on the Yangtze more safely and their speed can increase by about 20 percent, Feng said, adding navigation costs would be cut by 30 percent for per ton-kilometer.

The Dam should also improve flood control and lower the death toll and dislocation that the Yangtze too frequently brings.

In 1998, an enormous flood developed along the Yangtze, uprooting millions of families and killing more than 1 500 people. Two even larger disasters in the 1930s each claimed more than 140 000 lives.

These benefits are largely lost on Western and a good number of Chinese environmentalists. As the AP and AFP see it, the costs outweigh the benefits:

While such inundations may now be less frequent, critics argue that the price is too high. They say the dams are too costly both in financial and human terms, as they force the mass evacuation of people, in addition to being extremely harmful to the environment and to unique natural scenery.

Der Speigel expresses skepticism about the claims of vastly improved shipping:

Meanwhile, the project has also caused problems for the river's shipping lanes. Financial and technical problems have delayed the construction of five locks and a ship lift, so cargo captains now suffer long waits before making passage through the dam area. Beijing's resettlement policies have also come in for severe criticism: Critics have accused corrupt functionaries of embezzling funds.

They also quote a Chinese environmentalist - an all too rare bird these days- on the Dam's impact on water pollution:

"All the fears we had before the dam have been confirmed. In fact, it's even worse," Dai Qing, a Chinese environmental activist who has served as one of the most vociferous critics of the project, told the German news agency DPA. Entire villages and cities, including factories and refuse dumps, have been flooded -- dramatically increasing water pollution levels. The river's current has also slowed and silt levels increased. The threat of earthquakes has risen as a result of increased water weight on fault lines in the area.

And though Three Gorges is the world's largest hydroelectric project, environmentalists have larger worries about China's plans to build ever more dams in the future as the incentives it has for doing so:

The Chinese government is desperate to generate enough electricity to keep up the high economic growth rate, which has been at around 10 per cent a year for the past several years. The relentless energy needs of its galloping economy combined with the desire to avoid pumping more greenhouse gas emissions into an already polluted atmosphere have resulted in Beijing approving dams and reservoirs in nearly all the country's numerous rivers.

According to (Ma Jun, author of the influential book China's Water Crisis) the preference for big dams in China is explained by the fact that they are not subject to the democratic constraints and environmental concerns that make approval procedures for large hydroelectric projects an arduous affair in other countries. He adds that since local officials are assessed on the basis of their achievements in providing hard infrastructure, they tend to be particularly enthusiastic about potential large dam projects. Big dams are seen as uniquely effective in jumpstarting a local economy. According to Wang Yongchen, there is a saying in Chinese that goes thus: Building a house gets you grass; making a road brings silver; building a bridge gets you gold; but constructing a dam leads to diamonds.

There is hope, however, that officials' incentive structures can be changed:

At the same time concerns for the country's rapidly deteriorating environment have led to a slew of new laws as well as an attempt to make local leaders more accountable for protecting the environment, rather than focussing solely on growth. Unsurprisingly, the situation today is such that somewhat contradictory signals are often sent from Beijing in an attempt to balance a pro-growth and pro-green stance. The same water officials who champion big dams and hydropower are also now talking of the need to limit development along China's major rivers.

Tags: china | three gorges | hydroelectric | Dam | Flood |

See also: Fantasy Environmentalism: Breathing New Life into a the Socialist Agenda by Dr. Sanity

Links: Carnival of the Green #34 |