Second thoughts on Three Gorges

The World Bank and other major foreign investors stayed well clear of the Three Gorges Project. In part, this was due to a shift in the views of the international investment community away from large dam projects. According to a 2005 report produced by World Commission on Dams, a project of the World Bank, large dams tend to have net negative environmental and social costs, emit large levels of greenhouse gases, have a poor economic return, often fail to provide projected benefits and, are widely marked by corruption and vested interest which skew the initial intention of the project.

No dam, says the WCD report, should be built without proper social consultation and compensation, or without proper assessment of existing water and energy options.

It can be argued the Three Gorges Project satisfies none of these conditions.

As such, Beijing would have a hard time pushing through such a project, not only in China, but internationally.

Even as Premier Wen gives the nod for a further stage of the project to go ahead, displacing a further 80,000 locals, its worth wondering whether party bigwigs are looking at the Three Gorges Project as a large white elephant sitting in the middle of Chang’an Avenue.

Today, there is plenty to suggest the Three Gorges Project would never have got started: the world and China have moved a considerable distance in the last 13 years. It’s just a shame there’s no going back. China is stuck with the Three Gorges Dam.