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China's Symbol, and Source, of Power
Now, said deputy director Cao, engineers will be able to control the flow of water during the peak flooding months of summer, letting it back up in a huge basin that will reach as far as 385 miles upstream.
To make way for the impounded water, which has risen to more than 400 feet above its natural level, at least 1,200 villages and two towns had to be moved. Displaced residents already total about 1.1 million, according to a government count. Wen, who heads the government's Committee for Construction of the Three Gorges Project, last week authorized a further rise to 470 feet next fall, which will displace another 80,000.
  The $24 billion power and flood control project on the Yangtze River has displaced more than a million villagers. (By Du Huaju -- New China News Agency Via Associated Press) |
Zigui, a community of 60,000 people, baked under a warm sun Wednesday several thousand feet away from its former location -- now underwater. The village of Zhongbao, whose inhabitants once prospered growing oranges by the riverside, also was submerged, reduced to a reflection on the river's surface just under the dam. One city farther upstream, Fengjie, was rebuilt about 10 miles inland from its traditional riverside location, only to be moved again nearby when engineers discovered the new site was unstable.
"The displaced people problem is a big one," acknowledged Li, the manager, "and ultimately our ability to deal with it will determine whether the Three Gorges Project is successful or not."
Li said Wen's government had guaranteed that all those displaced would be compensated and provided new houses and livelihoods. But many displaced families have complained from the beginning that their compensation was siphoned off by corrupt local officials and that they cannot make a living in their new locations.
The state audit office reported as early as 1999 that millions of dollars in compensation funds were being embezzled. Scores of officials were investigated and many prosecuted, according to the official New China News Agency. But the complaints have not stopped.
Chen Qun, a disgruntled Zhongbao villager, said Wednesday that his community's 2,000 residents were promised $450 each when they had to pack and leave in 1993. So far, he said, they have received only a third of that amount and corrupt local officials have pocketed the rest.
When they heard that foreign reporters were about to visit the dam, Chen said, several villagers put up banners urging Beijing to "Punish the corrupt officials" and "Give us back our space for survival." But police jailed the activists for several hours Monday and tore down the banners, he said.
