Title: Thousands being moved from China's Three Gorges - again | Reuters
Headings: Thousands being moved from China's Three Gorges - again
Thousands being moved from China's Three Gorges - again
RECONSTRUCTION

Content: Besides forced resettlement, the dam has been criticized for its polluted waters. Hundreds of factories, mines and waste dumps were submerged over the years and additional urban growth along the reservoir has caused waste water discharge to double between 2000 and 2005, according to International Rivers, a California-based NGO that aims to protect rivers. An island of waste was floating in the dam’s brown waters when Reuters visited. “After the Three Gorges dam was built, the deterioration of the water quality is very obvious and it is irreversible,” said Ai Nanshan, a professor of environmental sciences at Sichuan University. “ The water flow has slowed down, so its ability to purify itself has deteriorated.” The dam has accelerated development along the reservoir by 50 to 100 years, said Chen Lei, another official in the Three Gorges operations department. “If not for the Three Gorges project, their (residents’) lives would be confined as before, deep in the mountains, a relatively backward state of poverty,” he said. RECONSTRUCTION
Authorities are building a new town nearby called Shennongxi to house residents of Huangtupo. Shuai was among the first to move to one of the many seven-storey apartment blocks painted in cream, pink and grey colors that stand amid scorched red earth. If you don’t move, we won’t care about you, she said a local official told her last year.