Chinese government acknowledges Three Gorges Dam "disaster"

The Three Gorges Dam is located in the middle of the Yangtze River, with a total power generating capacity of 22,500 megawatts—far larger than the world second largest dam in South America. Commenced in 1994, it has cost more than $US25 billion and is still not fully completed. Pushed by former President Jiang Zemin as a prestige project, the dam came to symbolise Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policy in 1990s of “opening up” to foreign capital. Public criticism of the dam was suppressed.

Now a different assessment is being made. On September 26, the official Xinhua news agency reported a high-level meeting of government officials at which “the many ecological and environmental problems concerning the Three Gorges Dam” were acknowledged. Participants expressed concern that “if no preventive measures are taken, the project could lead to catastrophe.” Wang Xiaofeng, the head of the Three Gorges Dam Project of the State Council declared: “We cannot win passing economic prosperity at the cost of the environment.”