The environmental impact of the country's Three Gorges Dam has been less damaging than
feared, a high-ranking official said yesterday.
Wang Xiaofeng, director of the office of the State Council's
Three Gorges Project Committee, said: The (environmental) problems,
including landslides, trapped silt and algae blooms, did not go
beyond the scope predicted by the feasibility report in 1991, and
in some cases, are less severe than predicted.
"We are able to allow more silt than the designed volume to get
through the dam, and no major geological disasters or related
casualties have happened in the reservoir area since the water
level was raised to 156 m last year," he said.
Wang added that some algae blooms occurred, but were temporary
and did not affect the quality of the water.
"Problems, including pollution, landslides, trapped silt and
clean water discharge, merit our close attention," Wang said, but
he added that some of the problems existed long before the dam was
built and are manageable.
The Three Gorges area, sitting among brittle terrain in the
heart of the country, has recorded several major landslides in past
decades.
Wang said the dam might, however, have increased the chances of
cave-ins and landslides, and his office is still taking measures,
including reforestation, cementing rock structures, and stripping
loose soil from periodically submerged areas, to ward against
potential disasters.
Wang said monitoring facilities had not detected signs of
earthquakes caused by the reservoir.
"Frequency and intensity of earthquakes remain similar to
before," he said.
Local environment bureaux will continue to monitor ecological
changes, and have hired professional workers to clean garbage,
weeds and algae in the water.
Inspections of some of the 47 water treatment factories for
irregularities have also been carried out.
(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2007)
