Beijing Announces Environmental Plan for Three Gorges Dam Area

The International Herald Tribune ^ | November 21, 2007 | By Jim Yardley

[JACKRUSSELL]

(BEIJING) -- China has announced plans to confront environmental and geological problems around the Three Gorges Dam, even as a landslide in the region Tuesday killed one construction worker, injured a second and trapped two others beneath a mound of fallen earth.

That incident came as Chinese officials face growing questions about a project dogged for years by controversy and discord. Water pollution, soil erosion and landslides are becoming increasingly frequent as water continues to rise and inundate more land in the reservoir behind the mammoth dam.

On Tuesday night, state media announced a host of new environmental measures from the Three Gorges Project Committee of the State Council, the highest executive body in the government. Specifics were scarce, but state media described "seven projects" focused on guaranteeing safe drinking water, curbing municipal and industrial dumping, and instituting an environmental monitoring system.

The proposal announced Tuesday appeared to be the same basic plan that was discussed privately in late September by select officials and experts at a closed forum about the dam. At that meeting, Wang Xiaofeng, director of the Three Gorges Project Committee, described seven pilot projects that would constitute a "7+1" plan to "create a model for a friendly society and environment where man and nature coexist harmoniously."

But according to a transcript of his September speech obtained by The New York Times, Wang also suggested that financing for any new environmental initiatives had not yet been approved. "My office is making an effort to push ahead with a '7+1' special plan," Wang said, adding that he hoped the State Council and regional government "will support it."

In September, Wang also said environmental protection efforts in the Three Gorges region must focus on curbing industrial and municipal pollution into tributaries and bays of the reservoir behind the dam......

[JACKRUSSELL]

”Made in China” Ping.

(Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.)

[stephenjohnbanker]

“(BEIJING) — China has announced plans to confront environmental and geological problems around the Three Gorges Dam, even as a landslide in the region “

LMAO!!

Wear a mask.

[cmsgop]

That things still standing ???

[JACKRUSSELL]

A worker carries rocks on his back as he repairs a road that was hit by a landslide on the outskirts of Qianjiangping village in Hubei Province, central China November 5, 2007. Many villagers living on the slopes of tributaries to China's Three Gorges dam, the world's largest dam, have had to deal with the project's environmental impact. (Reuters)