http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4983572.stm So, the three gorges dam in China is nearing completion. One million people forcibly removed from their homes, an ecological disaster of appaling magnitude, and the end is soon to arrive. I read articles here and there, can't remember from where though, that the construction materials were shabby in several locations so that it collapsing and making a great big flood is rather likely. Opinions?
Nothing about shabby materials over at this side of the world... quite the opposite in fact. the front page boasts about it's amazing construction with a note to turn to page 16 where the headline reads "Three Gorges Built to Withstand attacks" [quote:c0765eedc5="The Sunday Times Singapore"]Officials say the 2,300m long dam is robustly built and will be able to withstand any conventional attack, whether from terrorists or from hostile foreign powers [/quote:c0765eedc5] It wont even be finished properly until 2009 and according to this article it will produce "only 2 per cent of the country's energy needs by 2010" [quote:c0765eedc5]Earlier last week, the government pledged financial support for resettled villagers over the next 20 years. Villagers have accused corrupt local officials of siphoning off compensation funds[/quote:c0765eedc5] I couldn't find the whole article on line I'm afraid and am not typing the whole thing out but it seems to portray the message that - yes the dam doesn't really do much to help China, but it is amazing and big and strong. A interesting few paragraphs right at the end... [quote:c0765eedc5]Environmentalists are concerned that slowing the river's flow will increase pollution and cause erotion problems. Others fear the enormous dam could become a terrorist target and make the are more vulnerable to land-slides and earthquakes. But officials have said the dam was built to withstand terrorist attacks as well as an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale [/quote:c0765eedc5] Nothing about the landslides, erosion and the threat of it [b:c0765eedc5]causing[/b:c0765eedc5] earthquakes...it only says the dam can withstand them. Edit to add: this is from a government censored paper in Singapore (a predominantly Chinese state)
The wikipedia article, while possibly innacurate at times, still has more information on it in one place than any other article I've seen. The "Potential Hazards" bit is quite interesting, especially as it highlights one of the main events that the Chinese goverment sought to hide from the public eye, which was the great big crack that the dam had at 2000. The article also mentions the corruption and shoddy materials that plagued the project for years.
So it's a dam on a seismic fault that could destroy it at any moment as it is made by faulty materials, the building cost more than any other construction project in the world and resulted in the relocation of 1.3 million as well as over 100 deaths during its construction. It is supposed to be using renewable energy resources but the greenhouse gasses produced in construction of it were most likely severly damaging in the first place. Also, the energy prduced will baerely cover 2% of the demand in 4 years time. It is a huge terrorist threat and if despite being built to withstand them...is actually very poorly constructed... The outlook doesn't look in favour of this thing. Was it really worth it?
I believe the government built it to prove they could... Once the grand idea got on a roll they couldn't take it back cos that would make them look bad. Nothing quite like idiocy through stubbornness.
[quote:ab22b21f7e]These historical sites contain remnants of the homeland of the Ba, an ancient people who settled in the region more than 4,000 years ago. One of the traditions of the Ba was to bury the dead in coffins in caves high on the cliff.[/quote:ab22b21f7e] BA gets about doesn't he
more than you know. i keep finding scorpions in my shoes this month, and they're hardly native to this island.
[quote:3510d6778a="Garner"]more than you know. i keep finding scorpions in my shoes this month, and they're hardly native to this island.[/quote:3510d6778a] But does anyone appreciate Ba's hard work and dedication in the scorpion-wrangling field?
Yeah, well still could do better, no scorpions here... **sits down** Ouch, what the... **dies in agony**
[quote:8d25e85925="spiky"]I believe the government built it to prove they could... Once the grand idea got on a roll they couldn't take it back cos that would make them look bad. Nothing quite like idiocy through stubbornness.[/quote:8d25e85925] It's part of the Great Chinese Empire complex. Build big, big impressive, build useless.
[quote:6e829bdd84="Katcal"]Yeah, well still could do better, no scorpions here... **sits down** Ouch, what the... **dies in agony**[/quote:6e829bdd84] *laughs*
[quote:9438070c3c="Victimov8"]The Empires new Dam?[/quote:9438070c3c] The biggest dam in the world! Possibly the biggest man-made construction on the planet! Bow to Chinese supremacy! And *do* ignore the little details...
Wasn't the Hoover Dam rather controversial, more now than at the time as things were hushed up a bit?
[quote:85dafbbef4="Maljonic"]Wasn't the Hoover Dam rather controversial, more now than at the time as things were hushed up a bit?[/quote:85dafbbef4] A few folks who were building it died from gas poisoning, didn't they? And quite a few more suffered various illnesses from it, I think. Other than that, all I remember from reading about it is the issue with the name.
I think there was also an issue of people being worked to death in poor conditions, with nothing they could do about it and being threatened by bully boys and harrassed by men with rifles. All kinds of mysterious underhand dealings too.
I found this article at pbs.org; it doesn't tell all the things that I've heard and read about, but it does hint at a lot of it and you can read between the lines a little and imagine the corruption at work to get the job finished and keep costs down: [quote:77d6239606="pbs.org"]Even under the best of conditions, dam building was tough, dangerous work. Those working on the construction of Hoover Dam had to contend with other factors that made their work more risky and trying. One was the searing, relentless heat. The temperature at the work site would routinely soar to above 120 degrees during the summer and plummet to well below freezing in the winter. An added pressure felt by the workers was the insistence of supervisors and managers to finish the job in record time. Millions of dollars were at stake. Six Companies, the outfit building the dam, had agreed to a rigid government deadline--two and a half years to divert the river or face steep fines for every day they ran late. In the rush to meet their deadline, Six Companies often sacrificed safety for speed. Working seven days a week, dam workers were exposed to all manner of dangers: carbon monoxide poisoning, dehydration, heat prostration, and electrocution from carelessly placed electrical lines. To top it off, workers knew they had little leverage to lobby for changes. With a quarter of the nation's work force idle, the workers at Hoover Dam knew they were expendable. Frank Anderson, a professional organizer for the radical labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), had been dispatched to Las Vegas to recruit members and stir up demands for better working conditions and higher pay. Workers regarded Anderson and the IWW with suspicion and contempt. They knew any affiliation with a labor group could result in their having no job to complain about. Meanwhile, Six Companies, along with officials in Las Vegas and elements within the Reclamation Service, made concerted efforts to discredit and drive out the IWW. Frank Anderson was jailed on trumped up vagrancy charges. Workers reached a breakpoint during the summer of 1931, however. On August 7, Six Companies reassigned a number of diversion tunnel workers to lower paying jobs. Within hours, the entire work force went out on strike. Six Companies contended that only 30 muckers, unskilled laborers who loaded broken rocks into trucks, would be affected by the pay reduction. Workers decided that the time was ripe, not just to protest the pay cut, but to list their grievances and issue demands. Among them: that clean water and flush toilets be provided, that ice water be readily available to workers, and that Six Companies obey all mining laws issued by the States of Nevada and Arizona. Significantly, the striking mine workers also voted to disassociate themselves from the IWW. Upon reviewing the workers' demands, job supervisor Frank Crowe echoed the feelings of his bosses in rejecting every one of them. The strikers made a last- ditch appeal to the U.S. Secretary of Labor, William Doak, to intervene on their behalf. He refused. Knowing they were beaten, and worried they might not get their jobs back, the strikers voted to return to the dam site. Six Companies stood by its pay cut, but pledged it would be the last. Additionally, efforts were made to improve work conditions as additional lighting and water was made available, and construction of living quarters in Boulder City was sped up. [/quote:77d6239606]
