Frankly, they don't give a dam....

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ccdd055c-e4c2-11dc-a495-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=7799346e-6d6c-11da-a4df-0000779e2340.html


“This dam was a really stupid mistake. We should consider all such projects from a scientific perspective, and if it’s not scientific we shouldn’t do these stupid things. It was so stupid, stupid, I say.” An obviously ticked off An Qingyuan, former Communist Party boss from the Shaanxi province, vented his frustration at the failure of the Sanmenxia dam constructed in the 1950’s by a Sino-Soviet engineering team. Mr. Qingyuan has become an activist lobbying to have the dam demolished and has also raised pertinent questions about the newly built Three Gorges Dam. Supported by the Party elite during the Great Leap forward, the Sanmenxia dam displaced 400,000 peasants and has been a monumental failure both socially and environmentally for those living in the area of the dam. Even current Party officials blame the Sanmenxia on many of the current environmental problems. Silt build up and industrial overuse have contributed to water shortages. The dam was reconstructed in 1960, but by then the human and environmental costs were staggering. Families moved from their land to make way for the dam are still bitter about the broken promises of compensation.

I was a bit surprised by the open criticism that Mr. Qingyuan offered and even more so by the senior Party officials’ admission that Sanmenxia was a disaster. Party officials are not wont to admit, “Oops, we goofed!” Also interesting to note that the old Party line lives on in the comments of the local officials who live near the dam who parrot “the benefits outweigh the negative consequences”. Those old school Maoists- you’ve got to admire their loyalty. Has the government learned from its past experiences? Not likely. Mao was breathing down the necks of the peasant population to work harder and faster to propel China toward economic growth with not much thought to consequences. I think back to the reading, The Tunnel, about the directive issued to communities to build air-raid tunnels large enough to accommodate city buses. The local committees were galvanized into action with not much more than axes, picks and hard labor….and oh yeh, they forgot to tell them to shore up the walls to prevent collapse. Minor oversight. China in its zeal to climb to the top of the heap seems to get ahead of itself I think. So, this begs the question- if moving 400,000 folk to build Sanmenxia provided a heap of problems, wouldn’t you think they’d give pause to the ramifications of moving 1.3 million for Three Gorges? Of course when you have one of the world’s largest populations, citizens are pretty much expendable.

Chinese authorities have employed the usual full steam ahead with Three Gorges, but this time not without critics. We can hope that the thirteen years that it has taken to construct Three Gorges has allowed time to carefully look over the blueprints. But my guess is that not much thought has been given to environmental impact. The press given this new dam touts it as the largest and waxes on about supplying one tenth of the country’s energy needs. As energy needs have soared, officials have gone silent and they seem to be rethinking that statement. Perhaps these officials should have looked to the past for the answers of today. As for the solution of what to do with 1.3 million people…that’s a hard nut to crack. China is quickly depleting its arable land and shipping folks off to the city presents its own problems. Maybe it needs to reexamine and be a bit more flexible with its energy plan. They are developing wind and nuclear power and that’s a start. Basically, they’ve painted themselves into a corner. But haven’t we done the same thing with our dependence on oil?