Deadly landslide raises more concerns about China's Three Gorges Dam(catastrophe about to unfold?)

SHANGHAI - A deadly landslide near China's controversial Three Gorges Dam has killed one construction worker and left two missing in central Hubei Province, near the dam's massive reservoir.

The official news agency Xinhua said the tragedy occurred on Tuesday, the same day Chinese government officials pledged to step up measures to deal with environmental problems caused by the dam.

Xinhua did not say what caused the fatal landslide, but in a story about the new environmental plan, Xinhua reported Tan Qiwei, the vice-mayor of Chongqing - the mega-city located on the 660-kilometre reservoir - as complaining the shore of the reservoir had already "collapsed in 91 places and a total of 36 kilometers had caved in."

It also cited Huang Xuebin, chief of the Headquarters for Prevention and Control of Geological Disasters, as confirming "frequent geological disasters have threatened the lives of residents around the reservoir area."

Since work started on the dam in 1994, environmental critics have voiced their concerns about its construction, warning of everything from soil erosion to pollution. But at every turn Beijing has blocked out those voices and resolutely presented the project to the Chinese public as a good news story replete with engineering firsts, an end to seasonal flooding and the promise of cleaner energy.

No one is certain why, but that pattern of propaganda was broken in September when Xinhua reported on a conference concerning the dam under the headline: "China warns of Environmental 'Catastrophe' from the Three Gorges Dam."

It quoted Wang Xiaofeng, head of the office in charge of dam construction, calling for urgent measures to avert a "catastrophe."

"We absolutely cannot sacrifice our environment in exchange for temporary economic prosperity," Wang said.

Now, once again, the news agency that is the government's mouthpiece has written about very real concerns over the impact of the world's largest dam.

It said seven new projects would begin dealing with various aspects of the environmental degradation caused by the dam.

Scheduled for completion in 2009, the Three Gorges project consists of a 185-metre dam, which is already built, a five-level shipping canal and the massive reservoir near Chongqing.

To date, the dam has displaced about 1.28 million people, flooded 116 towns and submerged vast areas of farmland, countless temples and many cultural and archeological sites along the mid-reaches of the Yangtze River.

China: Three Gorges impact not that bad

By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Writer

Thu Nov 22, 7:06 AM ET

Chinese officials on Thursday refuted reports that the massive Three Gorges Dam trigged deadly landslides, part of an apparent attempt to play down the environmental impact of the giant water management project.

"No one has died, no one has been hurt" as a result of the dam, said Tong Chongde, a spokesman for the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee overseeing the dam.

On Tuesday, a landslide close to the dam killed one worker at a nearby railway tunnel injured another and left two missing, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Xinhua also reported, however, that there was no evidence of a connection between the dam and the landslide, which left a 50-yard gash in the side of the mountain and a tangle of metal at the bottom. Xinhua said that landslides are common in the area where the accident occurred "which is sited on brittle terrain along the Yangtze River."

Tong's comments follow a report in the state-run China Daily newspaper quoting his office's director as saying that problems along the dam's 410-mile-long reservoir were no worse than expected and that no major geological problems had been recorded in the area since water levels rose to more than 500 feet last year.

"The impact has not gone beyond the scope predicted in a 1991 feasibility report. In some aspects, it is not as severe as predicted," Wang Xiaofeng, director of the dam's construction committee, was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

The comments marked a stark reversal for Wang, who, along with other officials, has said China will face a catastrophe if it fails to stop riverbank erosion and other environmental problems caused by the dam, the world's largest hydropower project.

Wang was earlier quoted in state media telling a seminar in September that China could not afford to "lower our guard against ecological and environmental problems caused by the Three Gorges project."

Asked about the director's views, Tong said they reflected concerns about potential problems, not those actually observed. He said Wang would clarify his comments at a news conference on Tuesday, adding the government was planning a tour to show reporters evidence of the dam's success.

Begun in 1993, the dam was seen as the fruition of a century-old dream to harness the Yangtze, the world's third largest river, for electric power and to control flooding.

But Beijing has been doing damage control since accounts emerged of the September meeting, where participants warned of increasing landslides and pollution, possibly requiring the relocations of millions of more people in the reservoir area — issues critics also raised during the dam's planning and construction when they were quashed by Beijing.

Seismic activity has increased as water pours into formerly dry slopes composed of rock, soil and sediment, some of it highly porous. That is causing splits and fissures, often deep below the surface, weakening hillsides and causing soil and shale to come loose.

The warnings about a higher environmental and human toll have raised concerns that the dam, promoted as a cure-all for Yangtze flooding and an alternative to coal-fired power generation, was exacting a price beyond its $23.6 billion construction cost.

Wang's office announced earlier this week that it was taking new remedial measures to protect the environment around the dam to prevent pollution discharge, ensure drinking water quality and enhance plans for "sustainable use of the dam."

In recent weeks, state media and local governments have also sketched out new relocation schemes, saying as many as 4 million people may have to be moved from areas adjacent to the dam's reservoir. Among those migrants were many from among the roughly 1 million people who previously had to move for the dam, often to remote areas where the farmland was of poor quality.

The impact of the Three Gorges Dam is obvious in many communities along the river. Residents are worried and scared about the cracks in their walls and some have felt the ground shift, but say they feel they have no control over what's going to happen next.

"We are already so poor and our lives are so hard, so having to move is very difficult for us," said Chen Zijiang, a farmer in Miaohe village two hours upstream from the dam, who has already been relocated twice and was in the process of moving again.

The dam's left bank turbines began producing electricity in 2005, while the right side of the dam started sending the first trickle of electricity to the power grid this summer. The project is scheduled to be fully running by 2009.

Further reading revealed the landslide and buried bus are 120 miles from the dam. Proximity to the lakeside was not discussed. If you look closely at the picture, the “landslide” was a section of a vertical rock face that was being excavated evidenced by the face of that rocky surface full of scaffolding. A small road can be seen passing just below the rock face.

http://www.att.net/s/editorial.dll?eeid=5542346&eetype=article&render=y&enlarged=y&ch=ne

My perception is that they were excavating the rock face to allow more room for widening the road below. As with most jobs like this, blasting would have been employed to remove the rock (as is done all over the world to clear large rock passages for roads). But as with any strata, it has its weak points and I would assume someone drilled into a weak point and the whole face came down a bit early. Or one of the charges they were planting went off prematurely for whatever reason.

I don’t see this as a direct result of the dam (120 miles away) but a construction accident.

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