With just 110 hectares on the edge of Asia’s longest river, Muhe lost half its territory to make way for the colossal Three Gorges Project, a 185m dam and 660km reservoir designed to control flooding, aid navigation and generate electricity. Since Xi’s orders in 2016, local governments have dismantled dams, dredged plastic junk from the water, relocated factories, banned waste discharge and restricted farming and construction along the river. The government has long insisted the benefits of the dam outweigh the costs and disruptions, but in 2011, Beijing promised to spend 1,238 billion yuan by next year to try to fix them. It pledged to raise living standards, heal the environment and create a long-term mechanism to prevent geological disasters. Riverbanks have been strengthened and reforested to reduce landslide risks, and “ecological barrier zones” have been built along vulnerable parts of the river.

Source: Taipei Times November 17, 2019 16:07 UTC