[North-NV-Greens] NEW MEGADAM TO BE BUILT IN CHINA

[Paul Etxeberri]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=572670

The secret dam: China begins huge project in World Heritage Site, 
displacing up to 100,000 people and devastating unique tribal 
societies

By Jasper Becker in Beijing and Daniel Howden
16 October 2004

In the shadow of the Jade Dragon Snow Peak, deep inside the Tiger 
Leaping Gorge, Chinese developers are operating in secret to push 
through a massive dam project that will wash away the section of the 
Yangtze river valley thought to have been the real location for the 
fictional Shangri-La.

Local tribesmen have revealed that work is already under way on a 
massive project that would flood a Unesco world heritage site, 
displace more than 100,000 people and destroy the way of life of the 
unique Naxi people, one of the world's only surviving matriarchal 
societies. It would also bring an abrupt end to the nascent tourism 
industry in the remote southwestern Yunnan province.

The battle to save the gorge, one of the deepest in the world, has 
pitted a David-like alliance of green groups and local tribespeople 
against the Goliath of the Huaneng Group, China's biggest independent 
power producer, working with the Yunnan provincial government. The 
company is run by Li Xiaopeng, son of the hardline former prime 
minister Li Peng, who oversaw the massacre at Tiananmen Square. Mr Li 
was at the forefront of the controversial Three Gorges Dam project 
that was pushed through in the teeth of strident opposition from 
environmentalists and residents.

"The stakes are extremely high. Chinese environmentalists have 
decided to make this their next major campaign," says Ma Jun, a 
consultant who was the first to produce a study on the dam's 
implications. "I'm optimistic they will succeed because this case is 
a touch-stone of all the big talks on balancing environmental 
preservation with development."

-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand