Damming the Three Gorges: What Dam-Builders Don't Want You To Know Edited by Grainne Ryder and Margaret Barber A critique of the Three Gorges Water Control Project Feasibility Study Nine independent experts express their professional outrage at a Canadian government-financed study that recommends building the Three Gorges dam in China, which would require the forcible relocation of one million people and the destruction of one of the world's most magnificent canyons. The findings prompted Probe International to file a formal complaint with the professional engineering associations against Canadian engineering firms for professional misconduct, negligence, and incompetence. To purchase a copy of this book, please visit Amazon.com [1]. Acknowledgements We wish to give special thanks to Patricia Adams for her rigorous editorial assistance, and her unflagging enthusiasm for the book. Special thanks also to Lawrence Solomon, for his patience and guidance throughout preparation of the book, for his expert help with writing and editing, and for his humour when driving a point home. We would like to gratefully acknowledge the following people who so generously volunteered their time to help: Norman Houghton, Marcia Ryan, Erica Simmons, and John Thibodeau for editing and proofreading the numerous drafts of each chapter; Dave Hubbel for compiling and proofing all the references; Peter Somers, for his help with the terminology. For their professional assistance and encouragement, we are grateful to Baruch Boxer, David Dawdy, Chris Elliott, Peter Goodwin, David Melville, Wu Mei, and Zhou Peiyuan. For their legal advice on the professional responsibilities of Canadian engineers who work on international projects, we wish to express our sincere appreciation to Carolina Gallo, Rick Glofcheski, Harald Mattson, Mark Mattson, and Paul Seitz. Above all we would like to thank the contributors to this book for their time, expertise, and dedication. And finally, Probe International would like to thank its 20,000 individual supporters, the Beldon Fund, and the Margaret Laurence Fund for their generous support, which made the publication of this book possible. About the contributors About the Editors Gráinne Ryder worked as an engineer in Thailand on village water supply projects for three years before joining Probe International in 1987 as a water resources researcher. She headed an international effort to stop the Three Gorges Project until 1990 when she returned to Thailand to coordinate a campaign against a series of dams on the Mekong River. Margaret Barber joined Probe International in 1990 with a degree in economics and geography. Her work on the Three Gorges issue has included preparing cases opposing Canadian involvement in the project for submission to the International Water Tribunal in Amsterdam and Canada’s engineering associations. About the Foreword Authors Dai Qing. A Chinese engineer, environmentalist, and award-winning journalist, Dai Qing was the chief editor of Yangtze! Yangtze!, the first Chinese book critical of the Three Gorges Dam. Released in early 1989, the Far Eastern Economic Review called Yangtze! Yangtze! “a watershed event in post-1949 Chinese politics.” For her role in spurring the public debate on the wisdom of the Three Gorges Dam, Dai Qing was arrested and detained without trial in a maximum security prison for ten months. The first edition of Damming The Three Gorges was dedicated to Dai Qing. Niu Kangsheng, M.A. was born in the riverside town of Wanxian on the Yangtze River (which would be drowned by the Three Gorges reservoir). He was Associate Professor of English in Chongqing for 25 years. Now residing in Canada, he is an instructor of Chinese drama and culture at York and Waterloo Universities. About the Experts Philip M. Fearnside, Ph.D. is Research Professor at Brazil’s National Institute for Research in the Amazon. He has worked in India and travelled extensively in China, including the Three Gorges area. His expertise is in the evaluation of development projects including hydroelectric dams. As a Guggenheim Fellow he studied proposed World Bank projects around the world, including the Three Gorges Project. Joseph S. Larson, Ph.D. is Professor and Director of the Environment Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U.S.A. His area of expertise is wetland policy and he has visited the middle and lower Yangtze Valley. Shiu-hung Luk, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Toronto, Canada. As a soil erosion specialist, he is involved with soil conservation research and programs in China. Vijay Paranjpye, Ph.D. is Professor of Economics at Ness Wadia College of Commerce, India. He is the author of Evaluating the Tehri Dam and High Dams on the Narmada which evaluate the cost-benefit analyses used to justify India’s Tehri Dam and Narmada Valley Project. Alan Penn, M.Sc. has Master of Science degrees from both Cambridge University, England and McGill University, Canada, and a background in chemical limnology and hydrology. He is an environmental advisor to the Cree Regional Authority, where he has work for 12 years on mercury-related issues in Northern Quebec, Canada. Vaclav Smil, Ph.D. is Professor of Geography at the University of Manitoba, Canada. He is the author of several books on China’s energy and environment including Energy in China’s Modernization. David L. Wegner, M.Sc. is an aquatic biologist with a background in engineering. He works with the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies Project of the U.S. Department of Interior, conducting scientific studies to determine the environmental impacts of the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, U.S.A. Joseph Whitney, Ph.D. is Chairman and Professor of Geography at the University of Toronto, Canada. With expertise in soil erosion management and environmental impact assessments, he is involved with the design and implementation of soil erosion management projects in China. Philip B. Williams, Ph.D., P.E. is a hydrologist and engineering consultant, and a partner in Philip B. Williams and Associates, Hydrological Consultants. He is also President of the International Rivers Network, based in San Francisco, U.S.A. Foreword 1st Edition by Niu Kangsheng I cannot help shuddering at the time and money that would be demanded by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, as the Canadian feasibility study indicates: the former is measured by decades and the latter in astronomical figures. For I know, as many people from China do, that in the mountain villages in the Three Gorges area, many people are still trapped in great poverty. The entire belongings of a village couple with several children might amount to nothing more than 70 U.S. dollars. If you care to ask them, “What should come first to make your life better, the Three Gorges Dam or a bag of fertilizer?” I am pretty sure that they will not hesitate to reply, “A bag of fertilizer.” When a fish is trapped in a dry ditch, what would you do to rescue it, if you cherish all good intentions? Give it a bucket of water immediately, or promise it plenty of water from a big river sometime later? Zhuang Zi, a well-known Chinese philosopher, active more than 2,000 years ago, tells us in one of his fables that to save a fish so trapped, you should give it a bucket of water immediately. Many Chinese today, including the mountain villagers, still reason the same way as Zhuang Zi does – down-to-earth and wisely. I cannot help shuddering at the vastness of the man-made lake that would “rise in the precipitous gorges”, for it would submerge one of the cradles of Chinese civilization in deep water and gradually bury it with sand and silt. And when I consider the drastic changes the man-made lake would cause to the environment, I cannot but recall Friedrich Engels’ famous remarks to the effect that for every victory Man scores over Nature, Nature will eventually retaliate. The Three Gorges Dam, if completed, will be the world’s largest hydroelectric dam – what glory and what grandiosity! Probably it will be regarded as the Ninth Wonder of the World, closely following the Eighth – Qin Shihuang’s Tomb, with its tens of thousands of terra-cotta warriors in formidable battle array. Qin Shihuang, in the four decades of his reign, spared neither labour nor expense to build his splendid tomb, but he never knew that his dynasty would perish only four years after his death. Niu Kangsheng Toronto, Canada September, 1990 Foreword 2nd Edition by Dai Qing Damming The Three Gorges is to have a second edition. It comes at a time when Probe International of Canada has won its case at the International Water Tribunal in Amsterdam against the Three Gorges Dam Project of China and the James Bay Hydroelectric Project of Canada. It comes at a time when the International Coalition Against the Three Gorges Dam has been established. It is also the time when the green movement has received increased understanding and support around the world because the dismantling of communist systems in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union has led to a deeper understanding of humanity and its relationship with nature. At the same time, work at the Three Gorges site has begun. Having used all available resources and tricks to have the project officially rubber-stamped by the National People’s Congress of China in April, 1992, the determined pro-dam leaders – who continue trying to persuade the opposing and undecided groups within the government – wasted no time in starting the preparatory work for the project. At the dam site, roads are being paved, transmission lines are being set up, and villagers are being moved. Is the world’s largest dam going to be built soon? Can we let these leaders, motivated by self-aggrandisement at the expense of the environment and human lives, get away with it? People who care about China and about the Earth are asking: “What can we do now?” What can we do? China is still under the control of totalitarian authorities.