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“Critics of China’s Three Gorges dam said an unusual Chinese government statement this week acknowledging serious flaws in the project, while unlikely to mark a major shift in policy, could provide ammunition to those opposing other hydropower projects in the world’s biggest dam-building nation.
“In a statement approved by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the country’s cabinet, the State Council, said Thursday that the $23 billion Three Gorges project, while providing “huge comprehensive benefits,” also suffered from a number of problems that were “urgently in need of resolution.”
“Among the problems were ecological deterioration, the potential for geological disasters and the uncertain status of the more than a million people relocated to make way for the dam.
“Beijing has publicly recognized problems associated with the dam on several occasions before, but activists said Thursday’s statement was unique in bearing the imprimatur of Mr. Wen, the country’s No. 2 leader.
“The National Energy Agency announced in January that China plans to add 140 gigawatts of new hydropower capacity over the next five years, with the goal, outlined in the latest five-year plan, of producing 11% of its energy from nonfossil fuel sources by 2015.
“The plans include a long-debated cascade of 13 dams along the Nu River in the country’s ecologically diverse southwest, which is home to dozens of endangered species.”
Read more: WSJ
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