GREY:CTORF - Post by User
Post by
warrenbuffet99on Jan 22, 2002 1:43am
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Post# 4667585
Hot Dam
Hot DamMonday, 21 January, 2002, 23:27 GMT
China's costly dam
project
The dam will create a 600km reservoir
Chinese engineers have blown up buildings
in the town of Fengjie on the Yangtze
River, beginning a new phase in the world's
biggest water control project, the
controversial Three Gorges dam reservoir.
BBC News Online looks at the project.
China's Three Gorges dam project to harness
power from the Yangtze River is one of the
most expensive and controversial engineering
projects the world has ever seen.
When work on the three-stage scheme is
completed in 2009, the 185-metre high dam
will be the largest hydro-electric scheme in the
world.
Officially the dam - which China's American
embassy calls "a dream for generations to
come true" - is expected to cost at least
US$24bn.
Unofficial estimates say the project, which has
been bedevilled by corruption and
embezzlement, could cost at least three times
this amount.
The dam is designed to
generate electricity
and reduce the risk of
catastrophic flooding
which has plagued the
region for centuries.
But environmentalists
have condemned the
project for the
devastating impact it is
predicted to have on
China's wildlife,
eco-system and
people.
Archaeologists and historians say many
valuable and historic buildings will also be lost
forever under waters which will form the
world's largest reservoir.