Word: dammed
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...particular, infrastructure is not and cannot be the panacea for all the country’s problems, a belief that the Chinese government has unfortunately espoused for much of the last decade. China’s last major infrastructural project—the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant—was finished in May 2006. Designed to control flooding and provide electricity to three percent of the nation’s inhabitants, it has even been touted by Forbes as one of the modern wonders of the world...
...problems it solved, it created more. The construction of the dam led to over a million people being forced to relocate as well as the destruction of numerous ecosystems and cultural relics. (I might have boated along the Yangtze myself except that there was no longer anything to see along the river banks after the dam was built.) The daily operation of the dam has also generated enormous amounts of greenhouse gases, and not to mention the dam poses significant sedimentation risks in addition to being vulnerable to tectonic and seismic activity. The lessons that can be learned from...
...Originally built to control the Yangtze's regular flooding, produce electricity to fuel China's booming economy and (not incidentally) serve as a symbol of the nation's emerging engineering prowess, the Three Gorges Dam has already faced a host of problems. An estimated 1.4 million residents have been displaced by the 640-km-long reservoir forming behind it, which also flooded several important archaeological sites. And some hydrologists say that by trapping silt the dam could actually make downstream riverbanks more vulnerable to flooding...
...dam's environmental troubles go hand in hand with growing political issues. Li Peng, the dam's most ardent supporter, stepped down as Premier in 1998 and has little influence among China's current leadership. The recent storm of criticism the dam has garnered could be a result of political jockeying in the run-up to next week's Communist Party Congress, a five-yearly event in which the coming reshuffles of the Party's senior ranks are usually decided. But it's also possible that the criticism is a sign that the Chinese government has reached the point...
...this point, it's highly unlikely that work will stop on the gigantic project; the dam is still on track to be completed by 2009. But with the current administration apparently at pains to seem more environmentally sensitive, it's possible that its worst effects can be dealt with. Lei, for one, thinks the government's new willingness to talk about the dam's problems means Beijing is trying hard to make the right call. "No one can guarantee the Three Gorges will be catastrophe-free," says Lei. But the chances are much greater that a catastrophe can be avoided...