Construction has begun on a major dam in southwestern China that will form part of a power generation base that will match the massive Three Gorges Dam in electrical generating capacity, reports said yesterday.
Estimates of the number of people that will be displaced by the Xiangjiaba dam project, being built on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, vary from about 88,000 to about 150,000.
The 6 gigawatt project, to be combined with the nearby 12.6 gigawatt Xiluodu dam, is expected to match or exceed the capacity of the Three Gorges dam further downstream on the Yangtze, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported.
Construction of the 28.9 billion yuan (US$3.7 billion) project formally began on Sunday, reports said. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2015.
Apart from Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu, China plans to build 12 hydropower stations along the upper reaches of the Yangtze, known as the Jinsha river, part of a frenzy of dam building aimed at meeting soaring demand for power to fuel China's booming industries.
Hydroelectric power is viewed as a relatively clean alternative to the heavily polluting coal-fired plants that are the country's mainstay source of energy.
Nevertheless, some critics have questioned the potential environmental and social impact of so many huge projects.
"The project will have to face manifold challenges, including environmental protection and resettlement of residents," the China Daily cited an official of the China Three Gorges Project Corp, which is also building Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu, as saying.
About 1.3 million people were moved to make way for the US$22 billion Three Gorges project after construction went ahead despite complaints over its high cost and worries that the dam will trap and concentrate pollution.
Planning for Xiangjiabe began in the late 1950s, the corporation said.
A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few female yakuza, but after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society. The multibillion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade. In the past few years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and laws targeting mafia are tightened. An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
RSS