Three Gorges in the news again...

News articles concerning the impacts of the Three Gorges dam are appearing with increasing regularity in the major news providers. The BBC recently had an article outlines serious problems with landslides around the reservoir and even some reservoir-induced tremors. The article states that the landslides are caused by the 'huge weight of water behind the dam and fluctuating water levels'. Sure, I'll buy the fluctuating water levels theory, but the weight of water has nothing to do with landslide development. It's more like the banks becoming saturated and losing cohesive strength at and below the water level. There are even reports of a landslide near Badong burying a bus and killing 30 people. Hmmm, I'd be sceptical of attributing any landslide the didn't originate at or very near the water line to the influence of the reservoir. Still, sounds very ominous and of course the potential for large wave from the landslides is huge. The Economist has a recent article outlining the impact of a landslide about 17 km upstream from the dam that happened in April. I must admit that I was in the are in June, keeping an eye out for landslides and didn't see anything in that area (it seems like it is soil cracking, not complete failure so that would be hard to spot from the riverbanks).

There is also lots of talk, some of it from official sources, about moving another several million people from rural areas into cities, primarily within an hours drive of Chongqing, in order to 'protect the ecology of the reservoir area'. This is supposed to be completed by the year 2020. I note that the population of Fengjie county is supposed to drop by over 40%....to bad, it's a nice place! (see photo)