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About Us |
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Three Gorges Probe covers the social, environmental, scientific and economic impacts of big dams and other large-scale water projects in China, as well as alternatives to such schemes.
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Three Gorges Probe is published by Probe International, a Canadian energy and environmental think tank that is independent of government and industry funding. Probe has worked for 25 years with citizens in developing countries, helping to inform public debate about massive infrastructure projects that threaten environments and undermine communities.
Our involvement with the Three Gorges dam in China stretches back two decades. In 1986, Canadian engineers conducted a feasibility study for the dam that recommended the project "should be carried out at an early date." Pro-dam members of the Chinese leadership then silenced debate within China about the wisdom of building the dam and pushed the project through in 1992. |
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Probe used Canada's Access to Information laws to obtain the feasibility study, and circulated it to internationally respected experts for peer review. The result was a scathing critique, published in Damming the Three Gorges: What Dam Builders Don't Want You to Know (Probe International / Earthscan Publications, 1990 and 1993).
Probe subsequently edited the English translations of two collections of essays on the Three Gorges project written by eminent Chinese scholars, compiled by crusading journalist Dai Qing, and banned in China: Yangtze! Yangtze! (Probe International / Earthscan Publications, 1994) and The River Dragon Has Come! (M. E. Sharpe, 1998). These books have become seminal texts in the literature on the Three Gorges project. |
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| We believe projects such as Three Gorges can be built only in the absence of good information about their real costs and benefits, and in the absence of an informed public debate. And so in 1998, Probe International launched Three Gorges Probe, a bilingual website and electronic news service to provide uncensored coverage of the world's biggest dam. |
| Three Gorges Probe has broken major stories on the endemic corruption, human-rights abuses and technical flaws associated with the dam, and produced a detailed energy analysis showing the economic inefficiency of Three Gorges power. We have reported on experts' concerns that the dam is located in a geologically fragile region prone to earthquakes and landslides, and that it will be useless in controlling the most common type of flood on the Yangtze (which is caused by heavy rainfall downstream of the dam). |
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Three Gorges Probe has in recent years expanded the scope of its coverage to include all big dams and large-scale water projects in China. We also analyze and report on the restructuring of China's power sector. We publicize Chinese scientists' vitally important but ignored research, and their urgent appeals to the authorities about large hydro projects. We report on the experiences of citizens who bear the brunt of the projects as they suffer degraded environments, lost land and livelihoods, forced resettlement, social upheaval, and harsh repression if they complain. We follow the cases of people who have been imprisoned or harassed for expressing grievances related to the schemes, and we publish their petitions. And we highlight investigative work by a few intrepid Chinese publications eager to print news rather than propaganda.
Publisher: Patricia Adams
Editor (English): Grainne Ryder
Editor (Chinese): Mu Lan
Three Gorges Probe stories may be reproduced freely, although we do ask that you credit Three Gorges Probe and send us the relevant clippings or Web site addresses.
To submit an article or for press comment, please e-mail PatriciaAdams@nextcity.com or fax 1-416-964-8239.
Three Gorges Probe welcomes submissions. As part of our service, we also reprint articles about the Three Gorges project we feel will be of interest to our readers.
Three Gorges Probe is available in both English and Chinese.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to Three Gorges Probe news service, please fill out the form here and send it to the Newsletter Editor |
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The Nu River is one of only two
major rivers in China that have not been dammed. (The other
is the Yaluzangbu in Tibet.) |
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