At 11 pm every night the neon lights of the Bund in Shanghai are turned off and the colourful display that marks the resurgence of China's economic capital vanishes into darkness.
It's part of the paradox of modern China. The country now has the fourth largest economy in the world, yet in 2005 it faced the worst electricity shortages since reforms began under Deng Xiaoping in 1979. The Three Gorges Dam, China's biggest hydro electric project, on the near-mythical Yangtze River, is said to be the solution to those energy problems.
On May 20 this year, the last 3,000 cubic metres of concrete were poured into place on the first phase of the project. Seventeen days later, on June 6, a controlled explosion blew away the cement supports of the cofferdam – the temporary structure used both to keep the Yangtze's waters away from the dam construction area and to act as a hydro electric power generation source during the work – signalling the first stage of the dam's working life.
When the scheme is completed, probably in 2009, it will supply power to 15 transmission lines, serving the whole country, with the exception of its western provinces. Shanghai and its neon-lit Bund 1,600 kilometres away will be among the cities plugged in to this water-driven energy supply.
"What we see running in the Yangtze River isn't water – it's coal and oil," is the metaphor used by the official Chinese commission that is the guiding force of the project.

Best Option
The Three Gorges Dam is seen by the national government as the best option for meeting China's growing energy needs without producing additional dirt and greenhouse gases in the energy making process. Coal-burning, one of the most polluting methods of electricity generation, currently provides more than 60 per cent of China's energy needs. The hydro project's supporters say it also makes the Yangtze's natural flooding mechanisms easier to control and slows the waterway, making it more easily navigable and therefore safer for cargo and ferry boats.
Some environmentalists argue, however, that as well as being controversial for the way that farmers and residents were evicted from the surrounding land and in some cases allegedly cheated out of compensation by corrupt officials, the scheme is far from being "non-polluting". They say if you expand the definition of pollution to include the effect of disturbing the natural drainage mechanism of China's river system and water table, then the Three Gorges Dam could have very significant and potentially harmful environmental impact.
Three years ahead of the scheme's conclusion, the voices of concern are getting louder.

Ticket to Ride
In the port of Chongqing at the mouth of the Yangtze, the main sounds come from boats. In a rush hour at 8 pm, passengers try to find the boat that matches their ticket. For some travellers the Yangtze is the setting for a relaxing cruise, though for many it is a watery highway, providing quick and relatively cheap access to other settlements further upstream such as Yichang.
Chongqing is separated from Yichang by 600 km of Yangzte waters, though some suggest the dam construction has had the effect of bringing the two cities closer together in terms of commercial and tourism ties.
For those who do opt for a cruise, what they see from their boat is quite different from what they would have seen a few years ago. Former landmarks are now under water, as the river level has been rising as the effects of the dam-making take hold.
Old villages on the banks of the river like Fengdu and Shibaozhai will become isolated islands as the water level keeps going up. For waterfront populations, the solution was to move to higher ground. The farmers complained that fertile land was being lost, and not everybody was happy about moving. Some of the funds for resettling people never reached them, and there were reports that corruption by officials resulted in 200 million Renminbi (US$25 million) in public funds going missing during the late 1990s.

Flying Boat
Modern Chongqing owes much of its existence to Three Gorges engineering project which began 14 years ago. The city now has a high-speed ferry service to Yichang, known locally as the "plane-boat" and which covers the 600 km in just 11 hours – an impressive average speed of 54.5 km per hour.
"You won't be able to see anything as it's like being seated in a plane," warns a local guide, though her motive for this piece of advice may be her desire to sell tickets for a more expensive, if more leisurely, boat trip costing around RMB 1,500.
Most Chinese take the cheapest ferry, one which stops in the poor villages along the Yangtze. Often these rural travellers pay the minimum possible fare of RMB 80 and make do with sitting on the deck floor. More affluent passengers pay RMB 800 for the privilege of lounging in First Class for the day and a half journey to Yichang.
After leaving Chongqing, some passengers take the chance to absorb the riverside atmosphere as the ferry travels through the night. One man, a native of Wuhan, who has been in Chongqing with his wife to visit their granddaughter, remarks wistfully that the mountains appear to have shrunk as the Yangtze's waters have risen.

Impact
The "river of his childhood", as he puts it, has changed a lot in the last few years. The water is already 20 metres higher than it was when he was a boy, and the elderly couple can only guess at what the Yangtze and its environs will look like when the scheme is completed in 2009. They agree, however, that the plan is a good idea for the benefit of the whole nation.
It seems the central government spared no expense in promoting the Three Gorges scheme, but critics say it has done very little either to monitor its environmental impact or to prepare a plan to mitigate any negative effects.
In Chongqing, one is reminded that China is still a developing country, with all the challenges that involves. The river water is brown there, though this is not surprising, given the amount of silt that must drain down from further upstream. More worrying is the locals' attitude to their natural resource. Chain-smoking river users repeatedly throw their cigarette butts into the river, either ignorant, forgetful or indifferent to the fact that modern cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate – a material that takes years to break down and be reabsorbed into the environment. Other travellers throw leftovers from their meals – complete with polystyrene box and plastic bag – into the waters. If thousands of citizens are behaving like that every day, with relatively small items of modern consumer waste, one wonders about the level of environmental education in the country and about what else is being dumped in the "Long River".

The New Long March
Pollution and environmental decay in China are certainly a serious issue that could damage long-term economic growth. In 2004 the government organised activities to raise public awareness on Yangtze pollution under the slogan "The Long March for the river", echoing Mao Zedong's legendary journey across China during the communists' war with the nationalist armies of Chiang Kai-shek. But for "river" read "rivers", as around 70 per cent of China's rivers and lakes are reportedly full of toxins.
The Yellow River's precarious situation is well-known. Pollution and diversion of 10 billion cubic metres of water for industrial and commercial use have already affected the environment of the waterway known as the birthplace of Chinese civilization. For eight out of 12 months in 1997 the Yellow River didn't even have enough volume and energy to reach the sea, such was the extent of water diversion. It's led commentators to fear for the future of the Yangtze.
Ma Jun, a 38-year old academic and former journalist, has studied the issue of China's stressed river systems for several years. He's written a book called China's Water Crisis which was published in 1999. This year the American magazine Time included him in a list of 100 people who shape our world.
In a recent interview he acknowledged that China was short of energy and that hydro electric options couldn't be dismissed, but added that the relocation of over a million people away from the Three Gorges area and the related cultural and environmental impacts of the scheme had to be taken into account.

Opposition
In 1989 the journalist Dai Qing was one of the first to talk about the impact and consequences of the Three Gorges Dam scheme. But his book Yangtze, Yangtze, containing a range of expert opinions, was censored by Mainland officials a few months after it was released.
Nowadays in China, there are a growing number of people taking an interest in environmental issues and environmental protection. In 2005, 459 individuals and 92 organisations wrote a letter to the government calling for public disclosure of what was said in an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report about a hydroelectric scheme planned for the Nujiang River Gorge in Yunnan province in southwest China. The Nujiang is one of the last remaining undammed rivers in the country.
International Rivers Network (IRN), a United States-based pressure group, says the Chinese government is refusing to release the EIA, classifying it as a state secret. IRN reports that preliminary construction work has already begun. Environmentalists say that with all the schemes, there's an urgent need for a public debate. In the end however, the threat of China running out of energy resources and the industrial and civil unrest that could create is likely far to outweigh the threat of upsetting conservationists around the globe.

National Pride
The Three Gorges' new dam is at a place called Sandouping, almost one hour away from Yichang. The complex is huge and is guarded by the People's Liberation Army. Boats navigating this 2 km long part of the river must pass through five locks built on the side of the dam. Every tourist wants to have his or her picture taken with the bold new structure in the background.
The dam has capacity for up to 185 metres of water, with a 600 km long lake, although a guide questioned by a foreign tourist during our visit was unable to identify the high water mark, creating the impression that facts and figures are kept fairly firmly under official control. What information there is can be gleaned from sources via the Internet. The scheme will have a total of 26 installations housing power-generating turbines – 14 of them in the Three Gorges – providing an output of 18.2 million kilowatts per hour. That capacity should increase with more generators and in 2020, China plans to have the biggest hydro power capacity in the world.
For the following years, 12 more dams are planned in southern China. In Yunnan, as mentioned, Tiger Leaping Gorge, until now a scenic attraction for tourists – is coming under threat.

Dissent
In July, a German journalist was detained in the Three Gorges zone for conducting "illegal" interviews with peasants facing eviction under the scheme. In June, activist Fu Xiancai was heavily beaten by unknown assailants while leaving a police station, where he had been taken to explain why he had given an interview to a foreign journalist.
Shanghai's Bund may soon have more electric light thanks to China's big hydropower schemes. But unless the authorities are willing to allow the light of openness and transparency to shine on policy-making for such projects, then the final bill could be one that China's future generations will find very hard to pay.

by Maria Joao Belchior
Beijing Correspondent