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Argument: The TGD encourages other damaging big dams in China

Issue Report: Three Gorges Dam

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  • “Chinese Dam Projects Criticized for Their Human Costs”. New York Times. November 19, 2007 – “Today, the Three Gorges Dam is the de facto anchor of a planned system of 12 hydropower mega-bases on the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze. Over all, officials have said more than 100 hydropower stations could be built on the upper Yangtze basin within two decades. The government-owned corporation that built the Three Gorges Dam has already started construction on 3 of the 12 large projects.
One of those sites, Xiluodu, will be the country’s second-largest hydropower station when it is completed in 2015. Two years ago, regulators halted construction at Xiluodu because the project lacked a proper environmental impact study. But work has quietly resumed. In November, crews succeeded in damming the Jinsha River, the tributary that forms the upper reaches of the Yangtze.
Environmentalists worry that these systems create a domino effect in which one mega-dam begets another.”