In Chinese Dam's Wake, Ecological Woes

In addition to the landslides, he noted, industrial pollution, fertilizer runoff and waste from Chongqing and other cities have thickened in the backed-up reservoir waters, just as he and others predicted they would. Downstream, he said, Shanghai has noticed seawater moving inland because of a change in the flow of water carried down the river on its 3,900-mile journey from Tibet to the East China Sea.

Lei, the Chongqing University professor, was among a group of government officials, environmentalists and engineers who warned in September that a "catastrophe" could befall the Yangtze River unless the government faces up to the environmental ills intensified by the dam and takes the costly measures necessary to confront them.

"It cost a lot of money to build the dam, and now it's going to keep on costing a lot of money," Lei said in an interview.

The two-day forum that produced the alarm was remarkable for its open challenge to the government's long attempt to minimize dangers raised by the Three Gorges Dam. "The environmental danger must be confronted," said Lei, a former official who always supported the project and still does. "We said that to the officials very clearly. Since the dam is already finished, you have to face the environmental problems and not try to fool yourself about them."

Equally remarkable were reports in the government-controlled press that clearly described the expressions of concern from Lei and other experts. The New China News Agency, which distributes only authorized news, quoted officials as well as experts warning that the lives of people living along the reservoir would be in danger unless the geological instability is dealt with.

"This is the first time the government has publicly admitted the serious environmental problems caused by the Three Gorges Dam," said Wu, the Chongqing activist. "If they had from the beginning grasped how damaging the dam would be, they would not have constructed it."

The project was decided by a generation of party leaders trained as engineers and eager to demonstrate the country's prowess in taming nature. Then-Premier Li Peng in particular promoted the dam in the early 1990s, dismissing its opponents as part of the democracy movement that had blossomed in the 1980s and was crushed at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

In that political context, officials long sought to play down the environmental dangers inherent in the biggest engineering feat in China since the Great Wall. Party censors made sure the focus was on the economic benefits and national prestige that would grow from such an accomplishment.

The relocation of farmers forced to move from low-lying villages generated widespread corruption as local officials distributed -- or not -- resettlement payments from Beijing. Regional planners in Chongqing have estimated that several million more farmers will probably end up voluntarily moving out of riverside villages into Chongqing's main urban sphere over the next two decades as the area increasingly industrializes.

Back when the dam was being designed, such problems were seen as an unavoidable part of China's modernization, Lei said. But a new generation has taken over in Beijing, he noted, seeking to balance economic progress with other concerns, including its impact on China's 700 million farmers.

President Hu Jintao and his premier, Wen Jiabao, have begun emphasizing the need to take environmental dangers into account when making such big economic and engineering decisions. Tellingly, Hu also has seen to it that his photo is not displayed at the Three Gorges exhibition hall among those of dozens of Chinese leaders who have visited the dam to congratulate its engineers and bask in its glory.

But whether he and his successors will spend the money necessary to deal with damage behind the dam over the years to come is the question that environmental activists such as Wu are asking. So far, Miaohe's little disaster has not been expensive. The village party secretary, Li Facheng, 45, said that each family got $400 as resettlement aid and that the local government is spending about $5,000 on each of the new houses.

But for the future, Du Chenglong, a 30-year-old Miaohe native, noted, "Our village is famous for landslides."