Four million more people are to be relocated away from China's Three Gorges Dam area, state media reported yesterday, weeks after officials warned of a potential "environmental catastrophe" there.
Already 1.4 million people have been forced to leave their homes to make way for the world's largest hydropower project, which started operations last year, but the new announcement has radically expanded the resettlement project.
The 4 million residents who will be "encouraged" to leave their homes live near the dam's reservoir, which extends for 600km, the China Daily reported, citing local officials.
They will move to the nearby urban outskirts of the sprawling Chongqing municipality over the next 10 to 15 years, it said.
City vice mayor Yu Yuanmu was quoted as saying that the new relocations were necessary to "protect the ecology of the reservoir area," which was becoming increasingly threatened by over-population and industrialization.
The report said the resettlements, approved by China's Cabinet on Sept. 20, were part of a strategic urban expansion plan for the country's most populous municipality.
The announcement came after officials admitted last month that the Three Gorges Dam had caused a series of environmental and other problems that were putting the lives of residents there in danger.
"If no preventive measures are taken, the project could lead to catastrophe," the Xinhua news agency quoted the experts as saying at a conference on the dam.
The head of the office in charge of constructing the dam, Wang Xiaofeng, warned of landslides, soil erosion and water pollution.
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