Three Gorges Dam could be environmental disaster

China plans to relocate 4m people from the hillsides around the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest, in an unprecedented effort to stave off an environmental disaster.

he huge project will take between 10-15 years to complete, but was necessary as the area's "ecological safety" was at risk, according to senior officials.

The announcement comes in the wake of increasingly panicked reports of the environmental effects of the £13bn dam, one of the world's most ambitious infrastructure projects, whose first stage opened in 2003.

It has enabled container shipping to reach all the way up the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Chongqing, the biggest city of south-west China, and its hydro-electric turbines will eventually generate as much electricity as 18 nuclear power stations, but at huge cost.

The river is silting up due to the reduced flow of water, while the residue of human and industrial waste gathering behind the dam is causing water quality to deteriorate.

Of most immediate concern is erosion, with the hillsides suffering a series of landslides and the Three Gorges Reservoir's shoreline collapsing in more than 90 places, according to one study.

Last week, a government report admitted: "There exist many ecological and environmental problems concerning the Three Gorges Dam. If no preventive measures are taken, the project could lead to catastrophe."

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