[More information at International Rivers Network]
BEIJING — Floods caused by days of heavy rains have killed at least 120 people in southwest China, left scores more missing, and caused authorities to put the giant Three Gorges Dam on alert, officials said on Tuesday.
Flash floods and mudslides killed at least 87 people in Sichuan province and 33 in neighbouring Chongqing municipality, local government officials said.
"The death toll of 87 is not the final figure ... We are still searching for a lot of missing people," said an official with Sichuan provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.
More than 60 people are still missing in Sichuan and Chongqing.
"There are many more who are missing, so we can expect the death toll to rise considerably still," said John Sparrow, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Beijing.
"That would bring the death toll (from floods) in China this season to well over 900. That's a very serious situation in a year when the big rivers didn't flood."
In Dazhou, the hardest-hit part of Sichuan, flood levels had risen to 8 metres (26 feet), enough to submerge four-storey buildings, said an official from the provincial government's disaster relief office.
"So far, 10,000 people are still trapped, about 6,000 of whom were trapped by flooding and more than 3,000 by landslides that have cut off roads," said the official, surnamed Liu.
Relief efforts had begun, but the blocked roads meant the Red Cross was distributing aid by boat, Sparrow said.
"Schools and factories are all closed and some areas have no water and power supply," Liu said.
About 380,000 people in Sichuan had been displaced, many taking shelter in tents, while 100,000 people in Chongqing had been evacuated to safe areas, officials said.
The China Youth Daily newspaper said the floods had damaged nearly 150,000 buildings and 400 bridges, causing economic losses of about 1.87 billion yuan ($226 million).
Rice and corn crops had been washed away, but it was too early to estimate losses, officials said.
China put the Three Gorges Dam on alert on Tuesday as water levels rose, state media said. The world's largest hydro-electric project on the Yangtze River is to the east of the flood-disaster zone.
Water levels at hydrological stations were above "warning levels" and rising and navigation on the giant reservoir above the dam had been halted for the first time, Xinhua news agency said.
The dam was meant to stop centuries of flooding on the Yangtze, the world's third-longest river.
Sparrow said this year's disasters showed prevention measures in China, where severe flooding is a yearly occurence, needed to be rethought.
"You can invest millions in flood-control defences and big rivers can be kept under control. But with climate change and the enormous amounts of rain we've seen, remote areas will still be vulnerable," he said. (US$1=8.276 Yuan)
source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T303931.htm
Background
People in China (and internationally) are against the construction of the Three Gorges Dam because of the environmental and social damage it will cause. When completed, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. It will stretch nearly a mile across and tower 575 feet above the world's third longest river. Its reservoir will stretch over 350 miles upstream and force the displacement of an estimated 1.9 million people. Construction began in 1994 and is scheduled to take 20 years and it is predicted to cost over $25 billion (this figure may well rise) .
Apart from people being forced to move, the dam construction will also flood valuable farmland, leaving these people with nothing. 13 cities, 140 towns, 4500 villages and 1600 industries will need to be ‘relocated’.
Environmentalists are also concerned about the destruction of such a vast area resulting in the loss of 7000 hectares of forest and unique habitats. They also warn that the scheme could actually cause massive silting and pollution upstream.
The World Bank refused to support the project because of these environmental concerns, and its design and construction standards have also been attacked by international experts. The dam will be located close to an earthquake fault line with the risk of potential damage to a completed dam when an earthquake strikes.
It has also been estimated that the annual average temperature around the dam will rise by around a third of one degree Celsius following construction.
source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/sosteacher/geography/35911.shtml 7sep04
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