Word: dam
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...giant Three Gorges Dam across China's Yangtze River has been mired in controversy ever since it was first proposed 88 years ago by Sun Yat Sen, the founding father of Modern China. In 1992, when Chinese Premier Li Peng submitted a proposal for the dam to China's normally pliant parliament, the National People's Congress, it ran into serious opposition and ultimately passed with the smallest margin in the legislature's history...
...Still, it is a sign of just how grave the problems are facing the world's largest dam that criticism is now coming from top government officials in Beijing, who previously had studiously avoided saying anything derogatory about the $180 billion project. In June, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a meeting of the State Council, convened to discuss the Three Gorges project, that solving environmental problems surrounding the controversial dam project should be a priority for the country. On Sept. 25, a group of senior government officials and scholars announced at a work meeting in Wuhan that the project...
...leaders believe they have little choice. To maintain economic growth of around 8% per year, the state power company, Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), needs to double its capacity to an estimated 26,000 megawatts by 2010. Vietnam's hydropower potential is nearly exhausted - the 2,400-megawatt Son La dam now under construction is the last feasible major project, EVN spokesman Nguyen Duc Long says. Prices for natural gas, another fuel source for electrical generators, are up 15-20% over last year, and domestic gas reserves are too small to meet demand. Vietnam is planning nuclear power plants...
...Mekong with only six months' notice. Although he was provided a new house by Huaneng, the 42-year-old says it's much smaller than his old one - and it doesn't come with the fertile soil that supported his family for generations. Villagers were told the dam would be a financial boon to local residents. But Wang and others contend that the best jobs have gone to migrant laborers. Locals, many of whom are members of China's disenfranchised ethnic minorities, tend to earn less than half of what even the lowest paid outside workers get. "They promised...
...China's dam building isn't limited to its sovereign stretch of the river. In June, the Laotian government gave initial approval for a $1.7 billion dam on the Mekong that will be built by two Chinese power companies. Another Chinese firm is conducting a feasibility study for a Mekong power project in Cambodia, in an area where other foreign companies have been reluctant to invest because of the adverse ecological impact. Several other Mekong tributary dams in Southeast Asia will be financed by China Exim Bank, the nation's largest credit agency, which has invested in power projects with...