Chinese Dam to Displace 4M More People

Landslides, pollution around reservoir at Three Gorges Dam
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 13, 2007 7:28 AM CDT
Chinese Dam to Displace 4M More People
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, the Three Gorges Dam Project discharges water to lower the water level in the reservoir in Yichang, central China's Hubei Province Tuesday, June 19, 2007. Owing to the excessive rainfall upstream on the Yangtze River, the influx into the Three Gorges...   (Associated Press)

China will move at least four million more people—including many who've already been moved once—as the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, nears completion at the end of next year. The new relocations were announced  amid reports that the dam was causing landslides, soil erosion, polluted drinking water, and seepage from submerged industrial sites.

A local official was quoted in the state media as saying the relocations were necessary to "protect the ecology of the reservoir area." Senior engineers on the project have spoken out recently to urge action on what one called "ecological deterioration caused by irrational development." Landslides crashing into the reservoir have already caused huge waves that have eroded the shoreline. (More three gorges dam stories.)

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