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China earthquake: 80,000 being evacuated from under dam By Richard Spencer in Beijing Last Updated: 1:24AM BST 28/05/2008 Attempts are being made to complete the evacuation of 80,000 Chinese below a natural dam formed by landslides in the Sichuan earthquake. Satellite images show how the Jian valley has filled with water after a landslide blocked the river's flow The blockage, on the Jian river above the devastated town of Beichuan, is one of many that formed when landslides were triggered by the quake two weeks ago. Almost 2,000 soldiers, armed with dynamite and using a mechanical digger landed by helicopter,...

SPOKANE — The era of massive dam construction in the West — which tamed rivers, swallowed towns and created irrigated agriculture, cheap hydropower and persistent environmental problems — effectively ended in 1966 with the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. But a booming population and growing fears about climate change have governments once again studying dams, this time to create huge reservoirs to capture more winter rain and spring snowmelt for use in dry summer months. New dams are being studied in Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada and other states, even as dams are being torn down across...

Still in Control Pervez Musharraf was calm, confident and—despite a flurry of rumors—not about to announce his resignation. Instead, the Pakistani president's "concession" to his troubled nation was an announcement that he would allow Britain's Scotland Yard to help local law enforcement agencies with their investigation into last week's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Speaking in a nationally televised address two hours after Pakistan's election commission announced the postponement of the ballot to Feb. 18, six weeks later than had been scheduled, Musharraf was notably deferential in his remarks about Bhutto, often invoking her "martyrdom" and extolling...

Excavations reveal ancient Egyptians were master dam builders 2007-12-03 06:47:01 New Delhi, Dec 3 (ANI): Archaeologists have discovered the remains of an ancient dam, dating back to some 4,000 years, in Upper Egypt, proving theories that ancient Egyptians were master dam builders. Discovered by an Egyptian-French archaeological team, which has been working in Luxor since March, the ancient dam was found a few meters away from the Karnak Temple in the city, some 500 km south of Cairo. "The 230-meter long dam was built during the age of the Middle Kingdom (of ancient Egypt) to protect the temple from the...

Sceptics about the world's biggest hydroelectric dam are being vindicated (MIAOHE) -- Peasants in the village of Miaohe on the north bank of the Yangzi River say nothing like it had occurred in their lifetimes, nor those of their parents and grandparents. One afternoon in April, for a few grim seconds, the ground shook beneath them. The Wild Cat landslide, long at rest beneath the terraced maize fields, orange-tree groves and earth-brick houses perched on the steep slope, was stirring. Experts had long worried about the Wild Cat, 17km (10 miles) upstream from the Three Gorges dam in a narrow...

(BEIJING) — The world's earliest irrigation system is being threatened by a hydroelectric project to be built in southwest China, state press said Friday, citing critics of the project. A series of 10 small hydro plants to be built on the Botiao river in Sichuan province will destroy the natural ecology of the Dujiangyan irrigation system, a UNESCO World Heritage listed site, the China Daily reported. "It is irrational to build such stations as they will destroy the natural ecology along the river," Chen Qingheng, a expert at the China Academy of Sciences, was quoted by the paper as saying....

SACRAMENTO - A federal jury on Thursday found a 29-year-old environmental activist guilty of conspiring to burn down or blow up a northern California dam, a genetics lab, cell phone towers and other targets. Eric McDavid of Foresthill, Calif. faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for what FBI agents said was as an eco-terrorist plot in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy, loose-knit group of environmentalists that has claimed credit for arsons throughout the West. McDavid and two others were arrested in January 2006 after purchasing bottles of bleach, a car battery,...

It was hailed as one of the engineering feats of the 20th century. Now the Three Gorges Dam across China’s mighty Yangtze River threatens to become an environmental catastrophe. In an unprecedented admission of blame, Communist Party officials gave a stark warning yesterday of impending disaster in the vast area around the dam if preventive measures are not urgently introduced. For more than a decade China has promoted the world’s biggest hydro-electric project as the best way to end centuries of floods along the basin of the Yangtze and to provide energy to fuel the country’s economic boom. The Government...

It was hailed as one of the engineering feats of the 20th century. Now the Three Gorges Dam across China’s mighty Yangtze River threatens to become an environmental catastrophe. In an unprecedented admission of blame, Communist Party officials gave a stark warning yesterday of impending disaster in the vast area around the dam if preventive measures are not urgently introduced. For more than a decade China has promoted the world’s biggest hydro-electric project as the best way to end centuries of floods along the basin of the Yangtze and to provide energy to fuel the country’s economic boom. An aerial...

Charting the Mekong's Changes The nets yield almost no fish today, the same as yesterday and the day before that. For generations, Bun Neang's family has depended on the bounty of Cambodia's Tonle Sap, a vast lake fed by one of the world's greatest rivers, the Mekong. Two decades ago, his father could rely on a daily catch totaling about 65 lbs. (30 kg). When the water gods were feeling particularly charitable, he would land a Mekong catfish, a massive bottom-feeder that can weigh as much as a tiger. But today, when Bun Neang dips his net into the caramel-hued...

This newspaper, which cannot be excerpted or linked, has an interesting article today about shoddy dam construction by Saddam Hussein that threatens Mosul.

Fifty Six Pre-Islamic Graves Discovered behind Salman-e Farsi Dam 03 July 2007 LONDON, (CAIS) -- The first season of archaeological excavations in the Parto-Sasanian city behind Salman-e Farsi dam in Iranian Fars province has been wrapped up with unearthing fifty six graves belonging to post Achaemenid period (333-248 BCE), Parthian (248 BCE-224 CE) and Sasanian (224-651 CE) dynastic eras, as well as a number of Sasanian industrial centres in the eastern side of the city. Announcing this Alireza Jafari Zand, head of excavation team behind Salman-e Farsi Dam told Persian service of CHN: “A number of these graves have already...

Two years before its completion, the world’s largest dam is already changing the local weather, say scientists studying the Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River. Both modeling and actual meteorological data suggest that the reservoir is cooling its valley, which is causing changes in rainfall. "In China there are a lot of people who complain because of the construction of the dam" and specifically about changes in local weather, said climate modeler Liguang Wu of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland in College Park. To find out if the dam was really to blame, Wu...

Dam to empower villagers and strengthen community. KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan, June 22, 2007 — Through a $1.5 million project launched earlier this year, the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Khost is finding that providing water for drinking and irrigation can be an effective weapon against terrorism. U.S. Navy Cmdr. David Adams, who took over command of the 120-member joint team in April, said that by providing the funding and oversight necessary to empower local governments throughout Khost to decide where and how diversion dams will be built, the Provincial Reconstruction Team helps connect the people to their government -- which is...

Warming threat fails to sway foes of dam (Auburn, CA)AuburnJournal.com By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer Tying global warming and the possibility of increased flooding into efforts to build a multipurpose Auburn dam, a California State University, Sacramento survey indicates that the more people fear the threat of a shrinking ozone layer, the less they want the controversial flood-control project. The poll of 1,100 adult residents, including nearly about 200 from Placer County, indicated that 74 percent of those taking the survey think the threat of global warming is a serious one. Forty-eight percent said it was very serious while...

Thousands of China's dams are 'time bombs' waiting to burst Fri Apr 20, 4:25 AM ET Thousands of reservoirs in China are "time bombs" waiting to burst, an official was quoted as saying Friday, a day after a dam collapse forced the evacuation of 1,700 people. "The problematic reservoirs are like time bombs, seriously threatening the lives and property of people living downstream," said Jiao Yong, deputy minister of water resources, according to the official Xinhua news agency. On Thursday, 1,700 people had to be evacuated from four villages after a dam in northwest China's Gansu province was breached, causing...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian engineers began filling a new dam Thursday as archaeologists warned that its reservoir will flood newly discovered antiquities and could damage Iran's grandest site, the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis. At the inauguration ceremony, attended by Energy Ministry officials, pipes were opened for water to start flowing into an artificial lake created by the dam spanning the Sivand River, 520 miles south of the capital, Tehran. The lake's waters will be used to irrigate the area's farms. Iranian state-run television said the dam was opened "on the order of the President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the hard-line...

Sadly, the legacy of one of the world's greatest civilizations is in peril, as vandals control the territory once ruled by giants. If there were a debate among historians of ancient civilizations with topic being the relative greatness of Greek and Persian civilizations, it would without any doubt be a very heated contest. On the one side, pro-Greek scholars could claim that Alexander was a heroic leader who conquered and invaded foreign lands to rescue them from what he thought were "barbarians". Another major assertion might be that ancient Greece was an example of enlightened democracy for those times. On...

Excerpt - KABUL, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Taliban fighters used children as human shields to flee heavy fighting this week during an operation by foreign and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydrolectric dam, NATO said on Wednesday. The Taliban have used human shields before, but never children, local residents say. The fighting occurred during Operation Kryptonite on Monday, an offensive to clear insurgents from the Kajaki Dam area in southern Helmand province to allow repairs to its power plants and the installation of extra capacity. "During this action ... Taliban extremists resorted to the use of...

February 13, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says it has thwarted a Taliban attack on a key hydroelectric dam in the southern province of Helmand, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported. The alliance says more than 300 troops from Britain and other NATO countries secured the Kajaki dam late on February 12 with support from NATO aircraft and Afghan government troops. Afghan provincial officials said at least 15 Taliban have been killed during the past three days in clashes near the dam. A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said she could not confirm a...