CHINA:China is planning to relocate four million more people from the Three Gorges Dam reservoir area in the next 10-15 years to protect its "ecological safety".
The new bout of relocations from the world's largest hydropower project comes after 1.4 million people have already been moved.
The government has pledged to promote more balanced development around the dam, a potent symbol of China's social, economic and technological progress, where an ecological disaster looms despite years of insistence the project is safe.
"More than four million people currently living in northeast and southwest Chongqing, where the Three Gorges Reservoir extends for 600km, would be encouraged to resettle on the urban outskirts about an hour's bus ride from downtown Chongqing," ran a report on the official Xinhua news agency.
The banks of the mighty Yangtze are being eroded by the weight of the water behind the dam, hazardous landslides blight the area as water levels fluctuate wildly and huge waves crash against riverbanks. The €18 billion dam, whose construction flooded 116 towns and hundreds of ancient historical sites, is up and running, though elements still have to be introduced, probably by the end of 2008, just after the Beijing Olympic Games.
The dam is retaining huge amounts of sediment and nutrients, damaging fish stocks and the fertility of farmland downstream, researchers say. Further relocations could prove politically destabilising.
Relocation due to the dam has caused widespread unrest, as residents object to being moved away from their communities and livelihoods, and petitioners have accused local governments of pocketing much of their compensation.
One activist, Fu Xiancai, who represents people seeking relocation compensation, is paralysed since an incident where he claims he was assaulted by thugs trying to shut him up.
China's State Council has approved a plan that was of "great importance to the environmental protection" of the area, Jiang Yong, director of the Chongqing development plan bureau, told the China Daily newspaper.
Even senior dam officials who have often defended the project as an engineering wonder now warn that areas around the dam are paying a heavy environmental cost.
"One of the key elements in Chongqing's new development plan is to further our efforts to protect the environment of the reservoir area since the environment here has changed greatly due to the Three Gorges project and massive population relocation," said Mr Jiang.
No details about the relocation were available, but Yu Yuanmu, vice mayor of Chongqing, was quoted by Xinhua as saying the ecological safety of the area was at risk from the steadily growing population.Environmentalists have long criticised the project, saying silt trapped behind the dam is causing erosion and warning that the dam's reservoir will turn into a cesspool of raw sewage and industrial chemicals backing onto Chongqing.