China plans to finish clearing the vast Three Gorges Reservoir area
below the 135-meter water level before the end of the first quarter
of 2003 to prepare the submersion of the area.
Addressing a telecast conference Thursday in Beijing, Guo Shuyan,
director of the office of the Three Gorges Project Construction
Committee of the State Council, urged the areas involved, namely
Chongqing Municipality, southwest China, and Hubei Province,
central China, to finish clearances and related soil and water
conservation programs.
The Three Gorges Reservoir will be 663 kilometers long and 58,000
square kilometers in size.
The Chinese government has ordered governments in the reservoir
area to clear away dismantled houses, factories, wastewater and
solid rubbish that may pollute the water.
The reservoir is planned to be up to 135 meters deep when it is
filled next June.
All the residents in the areas to be submerged next year would be
relocated, as scheduled, by the end of this year, the director
said.
He
said 664 of the 788 factories in the area had been relocated.
China will invest 39.2 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion) in projects to
curb water pollution in the reservoir area and upper reaches of the
Yangtze River over the next eight years.
The Three Gorges Project will help control flooding in the middle
and lower reaches of the Yangtze.
It
will also generate hydroelectric power equivalent to 50 million
tons of coal annually after generators are operating at full
capacity.
(Xinhua News
Agency September 20, 2002)