Dam Makes 180,000 Jobless
More than 180,000 Chinese workers and farmers will lose their jobs this year because of the Three Gorges dam project, officials revealed. More than 100,000 are being laid off from industries being shut down to avoid pollution of the huge new reservoir on the Yangtze river in central China...
More than 180,000 Chinese workers and farmers will lose their jobs this year because of the Three Gorges dam project, officials revealed.
More than 100,000 are being laid off from industries being shut down to avoid pollution of the huge new reservoir on the Yangtze river in central China. Another 80,000 are rural residents who are being moved to higher locations.
Beijing has announced a plan to invest up to $600m (£390m) in new jobs in the next few years, including "bolstering" the orange industry and developing farms to breed cattle, sheep, rabbits and geese, the People's Daily said yesterday.
New orange groves will be cultivated to supply a plant which can process 1m tonnes of juice a year. But the project will literally not bear fruit until the end of the decade.
Most of the small orchards that have long supplied travellers with tangerines and oranges will be flooded next year when the first stage of filling the reservoir begins.
Beijing says it will also invest heavily in promoting animal husbandry, with new dairy farms and a large meat processing plant.
Another target announced - farms for 3.3 million rabbits - may be easier to achieve given their breeding habits. So may the goal of 5 million geese.
The Three Gorges dam is scheduled to start delivering hydroelectric power next August. A crash clean-up operation is under way and about half a million residents along the 400-mile stretch of the river upstream from the dam have been resettled.
The total number of displaced people is expected to reach 1.2 million by 2009.
More than 100,000 are being laid off from industries being shut down to avoid pollution of the huge new reservoir on the Yangtze river in central China. Another 80,000 are rural residents who are being moved to higher locations.
Beijing has announced a plan to invest up to $600m (£390m) in new jobs in the next few years, including "bolstering" the orange industry and developing farms to breed cattle, sheep, rabbits and geese, the People's Daily said yesterday.
New orange groves will be cultivated to supply a plant which can process 1m tonnes of juice a year. But the project will literally not bear fruit until the end of the decade.
Most of the small orchards that have long supplied travellers with tangerines and oranges will be flooded next year when the first stage of filling the reservoir begins.
Beijing says it will also invest heavily in promoting animal husbandry, with new dairy farms and a large meat processing plant.
Another target announced - farms for 3.3 million rabbits - may be easier to achieve given their breeding habits. So may the goal of 5 million geese.
The Three Gorges dam is scheduled to start delivering hydroelectric power next August. A crash clean-up operation is under way and about half a million residents along the 400-mile stretch of the river upstream from the dam have been resettled.
The total number of displaced people is expected to reach 1.2 million by 2009.
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