三峡大坝之忧

今天的《华尔街日报》中文版网站上，有一篇关于三峡大坝的文章，读来触目惊心。

文章说三峡大坝面临三个巨大的问题：

1）大量的山体滑坡。
2）水质恶化。
3）泥沙淤积。

这三个问题，每一个都是致命的。虽然三峡大坝现在可以防洪和发电，但是它潜在的代价可能非常长期和巨大。如果山体滑坡和泥沙淤积造成长江主航道断流，那会是什么后果？著名水利专家黄万里教授，生前极力反对建设三峡大坝，断言将来会不得不炸掉这个大坝，否则长江会被堵死。因此，读到这篇文章，不能不让人感到非常担忧。

下面就是我转贴的中英对照的全文。在文章末尾，附有照片。

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Three Gorges Dam Exacts Its Toll

三峡大坝之忧

《华尔街日报》2007年08月29日

by Shai Oster

THE MOST VAUNTED engineering marvel in China, the Three Gorges Dam project, is suffering from unforeseen problems including landslides and water pollution, raising new doubts about a project that has come to symbolize the country's effort to control its environment.

中国最引以为豪的建筑奇迹──三峡大坝项目正面临着山体滑坡和水污染等始料未及的问题，从而使这个代表着中国改造大自然成果的项目遭到新的质疑。

It was only a year ago that the massive Three Gorges Dam was completed, creating a reservoir on the Yangtze River some 640 kilometers long. Now, geologists say the trapped water's massive weight has begun to erode the Yangtze's steep shores at several spots. That, along with frequent fluctuations in water levels, has triggered a series of landslides and weakened the ground under places such as Miaohe, a village about 16 kilometers up the reservoir from the dam. Local officials worry that a whole mountainside here could collapse into the water, killing residents and threatening a vital shipping lane.

三峡大坝主体工程一年前才竣工，大坝上游640公里的长江水域成为一个大水库。而如今有地质学家称，三峡大坝拦截水量的庞大重力已开始在好几个地点侵蚀长江陡峭的河岸。再加上水位波动频繁，因而引发了一系列的滑坡灾害，也使得像庙河这些大坝附近的地区的地质结构被破坏。庙河是一个距离三峡大坝上游16公里的村庄。当地官员担心，一旦整个山坡塌入水中，附近的居民将因此丧命，同时还会威胁到至关重要的长江水道运输。

There are additional dangers. Chinese scientists say that as the dam blocks silt heading downstream, the Yangtze River estuary region, which includes Shanghai, is shrinking and salt water from the ocean is flowing further inland. A report this spring by the World Wildlife Federation said water flowing through the dam is now moving faster, damaging the downriver dikes that were built to prevent floods. Raw sewage and fertilizer runoff has fouled the reservoir, nourishing giant algae blooms and threatening downstream water supplies. Fluctuating reservoir levels have even been blamed for a bizarre plague of rats that farmers have been battling in central China's Hunan Province.

危险因素还不止这些。中国的科学家称，大坝阻挡了淤泥流向下游，使包括上海地区在内的长江入海口收缩，海洋的咸水正在倒灌入内陆。世界野生动物协会(World Wildlife Federation)今春公布的一份报告称，通过大坝的水流速度目前正在加快，对下游的防洪大堤造成破坏。未经处理的污水和化肥残留物被不断排入大坝水库，导致巨型水藻生长泛滥，并威胁到下游的水供应。而水库水位的波动也被认为是湖南省农民所遭遇奇特鼠灾的根源。

The emerging issues at Three Gorges illustrate this rapidly industrializing country's struggle against the constraints of nature, and how attempts to overcome them can worsen the problem. Three Gorges opens as dams are coming under new scrutiny abroad from ecologists, as well as from economists who say some of these costly projects can survive only with subsidies.

从三峡大坝暴露出来的问题可以看出，一方面，中国这个正迅速向工业化迈进的国家急于摆脱自然界的束缚，而另一方面，它为此努力的结果却是适得其反。三峡项目的启用正逢国外生态学界对兴建大坝的做法重新进行审视之时，经济学界也有相同的看法，他们认为此类耗资巨大的项目只有靠国家补贴才能生存下来。

Questions about the Yangtze River's changed environment are taking on added urgency as China grapples with a mounting water shortage. Across the country, millions of tons of raw sewage, industrial waste and fertilizer runoff have turned lakes into algae-covered cesspools. According to official statistics, more than half of China's major waterways are so polluted that fish are dying or water is unsafe for drinking or irrigation. More than 300 million people -- almost one-quarter of the population -- lack access to clean drinking water, the government says.

由于中国面临日益严重的缺水问题，长江环境变化带来的问题正使得局势变得更紧迫。在全国各地，上百万吨未经处理的污水、工业废水和农药残留物将湖泊变成了藻类泛滥的污水池。据官方统计，中国半数以上的主要水道都受到污染，水中的鱼类正逐渐消亡，水也无法用于灌溉或是饮用。中国政府表示，现有超过3亿人（接近中国四分之一人口）缺乏干净的饮用水。

Making things worse, more than one-third of the country's 85,000 or so reservoirs have 'serious' structural problems, according to the official Xinhua news agency. This spring, a deputy minister of water resources called China's reservoirs 'time bombs' that could threaten the lives and property of those downstream. In 1975, a dam collapse in Henan province killed tens of thousands or more, an incident that was covered up until recently.

更糟糕的是，据新华社报导，中国8.5万座水库中超过三分之一存在"严重"的结构问题。今年春天，中国水利部一位副部长将水库比喻成会威胁到下游地区人民生命和财产的"定时炸弹"。1975年，中国河南某个水坝垮塌事故酿成万人以上丧生的惨剧，而这件事直到最近才被公诸于众。

At the center of the water debate is Three Gorges, China's largest and most visible reservoir. The country's news media are beginning to cover problems with the dam. The government hasn't spoken publicly about issues with the dam and reservoir, but it has quietly rolled out an early warning system for landslides and is supporting research to map at-risk regions. Officials are pouring money into water-treatment plants and reinforcing about 2,250 kilometers of riverbanks.

中国水问题的中心话题正是三峡项目，它是中国最大也是最壮观的水库。中国的新闻媒体已开始对三峡大坝存在的问题进行报导。虽然政府方面一直未对大坝和水库的问题公开表态，却已悄悄地制定了一套塌方事故早期预警机制，并支持对划定高危地区的研究。政府还投入资金用于建设水处理厂、和加固约2,250公里的河堤。

'We thought of all the possible issues,' says environmental scientist Weng Lida, the former head of the Yangtze River Water Resources Protection Commission, a government agency tasked with protecting the environment and water resources of the river basin. He is now secretary general of the Yangtze River Forum, a coalition of the Chinese government and nongovernmental organizations that share research on the region's environment. 'But the problems are all more serious than we expected.'

中国负责保护长江环境和水资源的政府部门──长江流域水资源保护局(Yangtze River Water Resources Protection Commission)原局长、环境学家翁立达称，我们考虑了所有可能发生的状况，但所有的问题都比预想的严重。翁立达现担任长江论坛(Yangtze River Forum)秘书长，该组织是为政府与非政府组织共同研究长江流域环境问题而设立的。

The government agency that oversees the dam, the Changjiang Water Resources Committee, declined requests for an interview.

负责管理三峡大坝项目的长江水利委员会(Changjiang Water Resources Committee)拒绝接受采访。

The changes can be seen here in Miaohe, where villagers have grown oranges from gnarled trees and farmed the area's steeply terraced rice paddies for generations. Miaohe's 100 or so residents narrowly avoided the mass relocations that accompanied the dam's construction, when 1.3 million people moved from their homes to make way for the reservoir.

在庙河这个世代种植柑橘和梯田水稻的村庄，人们可以察觉到一些变化。在三峡大坝修建过程中，庙河的一百多名村民险些就和130万三峡移民大军一样，离开家园，搬迁到别处居住。

This spring, villagers noticed a 200-meter-long crack, barely a centimeter thick, zigzagging across their paddies. Not long afterward, dam officials lowered reservoir levels to prepare for the summer flooding season.

今年春天，村民们发现一条长200米宽1厘米的裂缝横贯稻田。而不久之后，大坝开始放水为夏季汛期作准备。

After early May rains raised reservoir levels again, there were four landslides in five days not far from Miaohe village. As the earth shifted, villagers say they heard cracking as the timbers in their houses began to split. The government told them to evacuate.

到了5月初，雨季来临使水库水位再次上升，距离庙河村不远处的地点在5天内发生了4次坍塌。村民反映说，他们可以听到房屋内木质结构由于地面移动而开裂的声音。政府也要求他们疏散。

An hour away in the county seat, Zigui City, officials are facing a new wave of relocations. About 100,000 people in the county were moved to make way for the reservoir, and now local officials are concerned they'll have to relocate many more. 'The changes have come faster than our plans,' said Cui Shaofeng, an official from the Zigui County resettlement office.

在1小时路程外的秭归县新县城，政府官员们面临着新一轮的重新安置问题。为了水库建设需要，曾经有大约10万人被安置到新的地方居住，如今当地官员担心的是，还会有更多的人需要重新安置。秭归县三峡移民安置办公室的崔少峰（音）表示，情况的变化速度要快过我们的计划。

The 6,400-kilometer-long Yangtze is the third-longest river in the world, racing down from Tibetan glaciers, slicing massive valleys through the middle of China and passing fertile plains before its brown waters meet the sea. Along the way, the river passes the Three Gorges, a series of canyons that for centuries plagued sailors with swift currents and hidden rocks. Floods were a constant threat, claiming about 300,000 victims, by some estimates, in the last century alone.

长江全长约6,400公里，是全球第三长的河流，它发源于青藏高原的冰川，穿过华中地区的崇山峻岭后奔流直下华东大平原并最终汇入大海。千百年来，长江河道三峡段重重峡谷的激流和暗礁一直是船家的恶梦。长江流域的洪水更是时常肆虐。有数据显示，仅上个世纪长江洪水就吞噬了约30万人的生命。

China's leaders long dreamed of damming the Yangtze, in part to harness its power, but primarily to prevent catastrophic flooding. Modern China's founding father, Sun Yat-sen, proposed a dam in 1919. Mao Zedong, who believed nature could be shaped to man's purpose, wrote a poem about turning the treacherous Three Gorges into a navigable lake.

建设长江大坝是中国领导人长期以来的梦想，一方面是想利用其水利资源，但更主要的是为了防止洪灾。现代中国的奠基人孙中山早在1919年就曾设想过建造长江大坝。而坚信人定胜天的毛泽东更以"截断巫山云雨，高峡出平湖"的诗句来表达他的愿望。

From the late 1950s, the government approved and then delayed construction of a dam here several times, hobbled by technical challenges. By the late 1980s, China also faced mounting charges that a dam and reservoir would not only force farmers to relocate en masse to cities, but also destroy some of China's most precious archeological sites and temples.

从上世纪五十年代末期开始，中国曾经数次批准三峡大坝的建造，但因为存在技术难题，又数次被搁置。到了上世纪八十年代末，该计划仍然面临诸多质疑。持反对意见的人认为，建造大坝和水库不但会迫使大量农民向城市迁徙，还会毁灭当地一批中国最宝贵的历史遗迹和庙宇。

In April 1989, the government responded to criticism by announcing that it would delay a decision for at least five more years. But opponents were silenced in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown a few months later. In 1992 scientists and engineers completed a final environmental feasibility study, and later that year the dam project was put to a vote before the National People's Congress. It passed. But nearly one-third of China's usually docile legislature voted 'No' or abstained, an unusual show of dissent.

1989 年4月，中国政府对批评意见作出回应，宣布将把三峡大坝计划再推迟至少5年。可几个月后发生的天安门事件让反对声音沉寂了下去，于是在1992年科学家和工程师们完成了最终的环境可行性评估报告，同年晚些时候，该计划经全国人大审议并通过。但在那一次投票过程中，近三分之一的人大代表投了反对或弃权票。这对习惯于"俯首"的他们而言，实属罕见。

Construction officially began in 1994, but controversy continued. Responding to pressure from human-rights groups, the U.S. government and the World Bank pulled support from the project. In an open letter in 2000, leading engineers in China, including some who had worked on the feasibility study, protested a decision to fill the reservoir faster than originally planned to maximize profit.

即使到了三峡项目1994年正式动工时，争议仍然存在。美国政府和世界银行(World Bank)迫于人权组织的压力也撤回了对该项目的支持。2000年，包括参加了三峡项目可行性研究的部分工程师在内的中国工程学界顶尖学者发表了一封公开信，抗议为追求利润最大化而以较原计划更快的速度为大坝蓄水。

The first trouble came in June 2003, two weeks after the Yangtze River was impounded and the reservoir began to fill. While water levels rose, passing 90 meters and approaching 135 meters, the valley's slopes started eroding under the pressure of the water.

问题最早于2003年6月出现，在三峡大坝下闸蓄水两周以后，当大坝水位突破90米后向135米逼近时，峡谷的边坡在水压的作用下开始被侵蚀。

On July 14, a mountain on a tributary of the Three Gorges gave way, shearing a tongue of land about a kilometer wide and long and more than 18 meters thick. Thirteen farmers were swept to their deaths in the mud and debris. The wedge hit the water, sending a two-story-tall wave crashing over 20 boats, drowning 11 fishermen. Officials blamed the landslide on heavy rainfall. Geologists says a sudden change in water levels loosened rocks along the riverbanks.

7 月14日，一条长江支流发生特大泥石流灾害，一块长、宽均在1公里左右，而厚度为18米的山体落入江中，13名农民被吞没在泥石流中，而落入江中的石块激起两层楼高的大浪，摧毁了20余艘船舶，并导致11名渔民丧生。虽然官方称此次灾害乃暴雨所致，但地质学家称，是江水水位突然变化导致了河岸岩石松动。

With a final cost of at least $22 billion, the 180-meter tall dam was finished in May 2006. Once it is fully operational later this year, it will contain 19 trillion liters of water, equivalent to one-fifth of the fresh water consumed each year in the U.S. It will produce more than 18,000 megawatts of electricity, 20 times more than the Hoover Dam.

180米高的三峡大坝于2006年5月竣工，耗费至少220亿美元。一旦该水库于今年晚些时候全面投入运转，所容纳的水量将达19万亿公升，相当于美国全年淡水消耗量的五分之一。三峡水电站每年将发电18,000兆瓦，是胡佛大坝(Hoover Dam)的20倍。

Mr. Weng, the environmental scientist, believes the dam was necessary to stop floods. Now, his biggest worry is the worsening quality of the reservoir's water. Phosphorus and nitrogen levels from industrial and fertilizer runoff have risen 10 times above levels a decade ago, according to the WWF report, which he co-edited.

翁立达认为，为了防止洪灾，建设三峡大坝是必要的。而现在他最头疼的问题是水库水质的恶化。一份翁立达联合署名的世界野生动物协会报告称，工业废水和化肥残留物造成三峡水体中的氮和磷含量较10年前上升了10倍。

The Three Gorges reservoir is also filling with sewage. Wastewater discharge has soared in the Yangtze River basin, more than doubling from 2000 to 2005, the WWF report says. The basin is home to 160 million people, including 30 million in what is now by some measures the world's largest municipality, Chongqing, about 640 kilometers upstream from the dam. In the decade ending in 2005, the Yangtze basin economy grew 12.6% a year on average -- a percentage point faster than the rest of the nation -- as it has switched from agriculture to heavy industry.

生活污水也被排入三峡水库。据世界野生动物协会的报告称，长江流域的污水排放量激增，2000至2005年间增长了一倍以上。而在这一地区生活着1.6亿人，其中包括位于三峡大坝上游640公里处全球最大都市──重庆的3,000万人。在1995至2005年间，长江流域的经济年均增长率为12.6%，超过全国平均水平，该地区正迅速从农业经济向重工业经济转型。

Scientists and government officials say many sewage plants were built to process waste before it hits the reservoir, but that some aren't connected to city drains. Zhou Wei, vice director of the department of reservoir management at the government's Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, acknowledges that sewage levels in the reservoir appear to be increasing. He says the government has given additional funds to make sure plants are running full-time.

科学家和政府官员声称，该地区有许多污水处理厂，污水在排入水库前会先经过处理，但实际上一些污水处理厂并未与城市排污系统相连。三峡工程建设委员会(Three Gorges Project Construction Committee)水库管理部副主任周伟（音）承认，排入三峡水库的污水正在增加。他表示，政府已投入更多资金确保处理厂能24小时运转。

From the beginning, engineers were also concerned about sedimentation. The Yangtze carries 500 million metric tons of silt into the gorges each year. Without a way to release most of this mud, the reservoir would silt up and possibly collapse. Government engineers created 23 sluice gates at the bottom of the dam to release turbid water during flood season, and they estimate the system will keep the reservoir at roughly 90% or more of its capacity for nearly a century. Some critics believe sedimentation is growing at a faster rate, which could eventually make the dam unable to contain a flood crest.

从一开始，泥沙淤积就是工程师们所担心的问题。长江每年要携带5亿立方米的泥沙进入三峡，但其中大部分都无法排出去，水库因此将出现淤塞，三峡大坝进而有可能垮塌。工程师在大坝底部设计了23道闸门用于在汛期冲走泥沙。据他们估计，该系统可保证三峡水库在今后一个世纪维持90%甚至更高的库容。不过有意见认为，泥沙淤积的速度在加快，并最终会导致大坝无法承受洪峰。

Downstream, fluctuating sediment levels pose yet a different problem. In water with little sediment, sunlight reaches deeper and nourishes the photosynthetic algae, which also feeds on sewage and fertilizer runoff, Mr. Weng says.

而在长江中、下游地区，泥沙淤积状况的变化则会产生另外的问题。随着水中沉 物的减少，阳光可以照到更深的水中，进而促进那些既能吸收污水和化肥残留物养分又具备光合作用功能的水藻旺盛生长。

Mr. Zhou, the reservoir management vice director, says the dam isn't responsible for the blooms. Algae had turned out to be less of a concern than the Three Gorges committee had expected, he says, with only minor blooms in Yangtze tributaries. He didn't address downstream algae growth.

而周伟认为，大坝并非导致水藻孳生的原因。水藻问题没有工程建设委员会预想的那么严重，只在长江的支流出现小规模的爆发。但他并没有对下游流域水藻增多作出解释。

There are also concerns about whether the dam will fulfill its primary flood-control function. Weeks of torrential downpours in July created one of the biggest surges on the upper Yangtze -- the biggest crest since 1998, when flooding on the undammed river killed thousands downstream. Officials announced on Aug. 1 that the crest passed through the dam without incident, crediting the structure for taming it for the river's lower reaches.

三峡大坝是否能履行其调节洪水这项主要的功能也受到质疑。今年7月长江上游地区连续数周大雨，形成了自1998年来最大的一次洪水，98年那场大洪水导致长江中、下游地区数千人丧生，当时三峡大坝尚未建成。8月1日政府宣布洪峰安全通过三峡大坝，并将长江中、下游地区的安澜归功于大坝的防洪功能。

Critics say that while the dam can handle flood surges, it may contribute to downstream flooding for an unforeseen reason. Past the narrow gorges where it enters central China's broad plains, the river traditionally slowed, and in some places centuries of sedimentation raised the riverbed above the surrounding countryside and is held back by dikes, as in the city of New Orleans. Water released by the dam runs faster, the WWF says, because the dams traps most of the silt. Lightened of its muddy load, the water courses out with more force and speed and threatens to gouge out the dikes.

然而批评人士称，尽管大坝能起到调节洪水的作用，但却有可能因一个意想不到的原因酿成下游地区洪水泛滥。当江水冲过狭窄的坝口后，就进入了华中大平原地区。在没有三峡大坝的时代，长江流入该地区后水流流速通常会放慢，长年的泥沙淤积使这段长江成为"地上河"，要靠堤岸来约束，就像美国的新奥尔良。而世界野生动物协会称，由于大坝阻拦了大部分淤泥，使江水携带的泥沙量减少，导致江水流入华中大平原时流速加快、冲力加大，进而对这里地上河的堤岸造成威胁。

Geologists, meanwhile, are focusing on landslides. The Three Gorges were formed as the river gradually sliced through rock 300 million to 70 million years ago. The gorges have a base of limestone but are layered in places with sandstone, shale and mudstone -- softer materials that are more likely to collapse. As dam officials raise and lower water levels in anticipation of floods, the soaking and huge pressure changes leave banks weakened and in danger of collapse.

与此同时，滑坡也是地质学家们关注的问题。长江三峡是在距今3亿至7000万年前通过江水不断侵蚀岩石而形成的，虽然三峡大坝是建于石灰岩结构之上，但在这层石灰岩之下，却是砂岩、页岩和泥岩，这些都是质地较软并容易发生塌陷的结构。随着大坝管理部门按照洪水预报不断调整水位，江水渗入大坝地下岩层以及巨大的水压变化会削弱库区堤岸的强度，进而出现垮塌的危险。

'Slope instability is responsible for the most widespread natural hazard in the Three Gorges,' a team of scientists at the Imperial College London wrote earlier this year in the 'Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology,' published by the Geological Society of London. They warned the problem is likely to get worse.

伦敦帝国学院(Imperial College London)一个科学小组今年早些时候在《工程地质和水文地质学季刊》(Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology)发表文章称，边坡失稳是三峡地区最普遍自然灾害的成因所在。他们还警告说，情况可能会变得更糟。

One of the authors looked at satellite readings of Zigui, Wushan and Badong counties, with a combined population of more than million people. In these areas, estimated geologist Ioannis Fourniadis of Imperial College London, 3% of slopes are actively falling and 7% are unstable for activities such as road-building. Another 15% were mostly stable. The rest were solid limestone, which he says pose extremely low risk.

该文的作者之一──伦敦帝国学院地质学家伊欧尼斯•弗尼阿迪斯(Ioannis Fourniadis)在观察过秭归、巫山和巴东县（这三个县的总人口超过百万）的卫星照片后发现，3%的边坡处于活跃的下滑状态，7%的边坡因为修路等活动而不稳定，另有15%基本稳定。其余边坡由坚固的石灰岩构成，发生滑坡的危险很低。

Landslides can also trigger tsunamis, says Mr. Wang Fawu, a scientist at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University, who has studied the gorges for decades. Narrow valleys could amplify a wave set off by falling rocks, sending a wall of water downriver. Such a flood occurred at northern Italy's Vaiont Dam in 1963, he says, killing 2,000 people.

京都大学(Kyoto University)灾难预防研究所(Disaster Prevention Research Institute)数十年来研究峡谷地质的科学家汪发武表示，滑坡还可能引发水啸。狭窄的峡谷会起到放大岩石塌落所激起水浪的作用，引发下游巨浪。类似的灾难曾于1963年在意大利北部的维昂特水坝(Vaiont Dam)发生过，导致两千人丧生。

A spokesman for China's Ministry of Land Resources blames this year's high incidence of landslides on heavy rainfalls since spring. He says the early-warning system has detected some major slides and that the government is training local people to recognize landslide warning signs.

中国国土资源部(Ministry of Land Resources)某发言人将今年泥石流灾害高发的原因归咎于入春以后的大雨。他表示，早期预警机制已经探测到了一些重大泥石流灾害，政府正在教给当地人如何识别将发生滑坡、泥石流的征兆。

A kilometer from Miaohe, where the gravel road that provides sole access to the village passes through a muddy tunnel, the villagers have set up temporary housing. Inside the tunnel, the farmers live in plastic lean-tos. Nearby the local government is creating a clearing where refugees will build their new homes. The site is an hour's walk from a simple river ferry.

在离庙河村1公里的地方，通往这个村庄唯一的碎石路会经过一个泥泞的隧道。村民们已经暂时安置在这里，睡在塑料帐篷中。地方政府正在附近清理场地供村民们建造新房。新的村址距离同一条河有1小时步行路程。

The government is providing some money for new homes, but the villagers say it isn't enough. The farmers will be able to grow rice, oranges and tea here, but they complain that the land here isn't good for the crops. In a nod to the villagers' bleak future, the local government is providing families a dowry for their daughters, to encourage them to marry out.

政府为村民建新房提供了一些资金。但村民们觉得这还不够。他们可以在这里种植水稻、柑橘和茶叶，但他们抱怨这块土地不够好。为解决村民们未来窘迫的生活问题，当地政府将为庙河村的女性出嫁提供嫁妆，鼓励他们嫁到外地。

'This all started happening right after they began damming the river,' says villager Han Qingxi, 52 years old, pausing for a moment from rebuilding his simple stone home. Nearby, giant backhoes level the mountainside. 'They say it's safer here,' he says.

正在建造新屋的52岁村民韩庆喜（音）停下手中的活计说，"这一切都是在蓄水后不久才开始发生的。他们说这里会更安全。"而在不远处，巨大的推土机正在山腰上平整土地。

[新闻图片]

中国最引以为豪的建筑奇迹：三峡大坝正在被山体滑坡等各种始料未及的问题所困扰，也使这个代表着中国改造大自然成果的项目遭到新的质疑。

三峡大坝于1994年正式动工，2003年6月上游水库开始蓄水。2006年6月，三峡大坝全部完工。

三峡大坝将于今年晚些时候全面投入运转，届时它的库容量将达到190亿立方米，总装机容量超过1,800万千瓦，比胡佛大坝(Hoover Dam)的发电量高出20倍。

三峡工程耗资超过220亿美元，移民人数约为130万人。不过，在大坝开始蓄水仅仅两周后一些问题就开始浮出水面。

随着长江水位不断上涨，两岸山坡遭到冲蚀，大面积山体落入江中。

庙河村距三峡大坝17公里左右，通往该村的道路上还能看到前不久发生滑坡的痕迹。即使在三峡大坝修建之前，这片地区也很容易发生滑坡。

大坝蓄水以及雨季的水位调整引发了山体滑坡，也严重损害了庙河村等地区的地质结构。

地基的移动使杜岑勇（音，图左站立者）家的房屋出现了裂缝。他卖光了自家养殖的生猪，希望能筹措到足够的钱在其他地方重新建房。

其他村民正在距此1公里左右的地方修建新房，那里的地质条件据说更为稳定。

田间的一处坟地，这个村庄已经人去楼空。

和许多庙河的村民一样，韩庆喜（图左）在建新房时居住在隧道中。他说，"这一切都是在蓄水后不久才开始发生的。他们说这里会更安全。"

三峡大坝面临的问题不仅仅是松动的土地。科学家警告说，工厂废水、化肥残留物和未经处理的污水将很快在水库中蓄积，这将导致有毒水藻泛滥，并威胁下游的水源供应。

此外，批评人士指出，三峡船闸和仍未竣工的船只升降装置恐怕难以达到设计能力要求。

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