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Six Years On, Counting Costs of China’s Three Gorges Dam
Monday, August 20, 2012 10:13
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The Three Gorges Dam was built, in part, to help end the flooding of the Yangtze. It was also intended to allow convenient movement of goods and people, and to provide cheap, non-polluting power. Yet according to some observers inside China and overseas, the project has failed to materialize these benefits since being finished in 2006. They say it's replaced the disasters of unpredictable flooding with an all-too-predictable washing away of countless towns and settlements on the banks of the Yangtze River. Meanwhile, the estimated $50 billion USD that the dam cost has, by most measures, a long way to go before being seen as ultimately profitable. In early July, Ma Tianxin, who lived in a town in Hubei Province along the Yangtze River, was forced to flee with his family after a landslide tore cracks through the walls of his house and spoiled his farmland. Now the deep fissure running through the family's former home is just one more sign of the potential disaster looming for those living along the river. The landslides were exacerbated by the Three Gorges' reservoir behind the dam, says Chen Zhongshun, an independent environmental protection advocate. [Chen Zhongshun, Environmental Protection Advocate]: “The reservoir construction has weakened the mountain slopes. Many cities along the Yangtze River are built on those mountain slopes. People cannot settle down if the mountains are not stable. They worry every day. How long can that kind of life last? It is not safe for …
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2012-08-20 10:05:21
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRalttPgLqU&feature=youtube_gdata
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