Three Gorges official defends environmental impact

By Jim Bai

BEIJING (Reuters) - Western media have exaggerated the landslides and deterioration in water quality that followed the start-up of China's $25 billion Three Gorges dam, a senior government official said on Thursday.

"I was surprised when I read overseas reports of possible environmental catastrophes caused by the project," said Li Yong-an, deputy director of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee.

Li, also president of the state-run corporation responsible for hydropower development along the Yangtze river, said the world's largest hydropower project had in fact curbed the floods that used to displace thousands of people almost once a decade.

"Landslides also often happened before the construction of the dam," said Li, adding that one such incident in 1985 blocked shipping along China's biggest river.

Li said China had spent 10 billion yuan ($1.33 billion) to prevent landslides and would take further steps before lifting the water level in the reservoir to a maximum 175 meters (575 feet).

He told reporters on the sidelines of a Communist Party meeting that water quality in the river was closely monitored and so far there had been no sign of deterioration.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said last week that at least 4 million more people would be relocated from the reservoir area over the next 10 to 15 years to protect its "ecological safety."

The dam near the southwestern city of Chongqing, whose construction flooded 116 towns and hundreds of cultural sites and displaced 1.4 million people, is a work in progress.