In the face of criticism from environmental groups, a senior government official reiterated Friday that China will make every effort to protect the environment in the area of Three Gorges Reservoir and the entire Yangtze River.

"We must protect the river as we protect our eyes," Pu Haiqing, director with the office of Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, told Xinhua at an interview.

Since China started to build the Three Gorges Reservoir, the largest in the world, in 1994 on the Yangtze River, criticism of its effects on the environment has been unceasing.

The Yangtze, China's most important river, feeds approximately 55 percent of Chinese population, and the economy in its valley accounts for 40 percent of the nation's total. "If the river were to be badly polluted, the results will be disastrous," Pu said.

China's central and local governments have said they were deeply concerned with the project's environment issues. They have sought to prevent harmful impact that the project might brought to the air, soil, water and living creature, Pu said.

A comprehensive monitoring system has been established around the area to inspect the environment as the construction moves on and it has published annual reports for nine years. According to the reports, weather conditions have improved, water quality remains unchanged, and soil erosion drops by 1 percent each year.

The reports do show problems, however. The reservoir, like a giant water tank, will cut natural refreshing of the water to only11 or 12 times each year due to the construction of dam and substantially increase the possibility of getting stained. Because of the dam, sludge will increase, and therefore the area of pollution cradle is likely to expand.

The huge construction project has significantly improved water transport and stimulated local people to buy vessels for business -- bad news for the environment. Roughly 100,000 various ships and boats are sailing in the area, ejecting 50,000 tons of garbage and up to 20 million tons of waste water into the Yangtze River each year.

A budget of 39 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion) was approved last year to build 28 waste treatment plants, 26 of which have been completed.

Government officials say that it will takes time to accurately know about what exact effect the world's largest water project will bring to environment. Lots of top scientists and experienced scholars are involved in relevant research programs, and "officials and experts are keeping a close eye on the latest development and try to promptly resolve any possible problems," Pu said.

Pu said it was of vital importance to arouse environmental awareness of all the Chinese people, which he believes is a fundamental way to protect the River.

The Three Gorges Reservoir project is scheduled to be finished by 2009. It will have a total capacity of 39.3 billion cubic meters.  

(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2004)