From dianne Sat Nov 23 01:02:22 1996 Received: (from dianne@localhost) by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.7.5/8.7.3) id BAA22741; Sat, 23 Nov 1996 01:02:21 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 01:02:21 -0500 (EST) From: Dianne Murray Message-Id: <199611230602.BAA22741@lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca> X-within-URL: http://xp9.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?recnum=9175325&server=dnserver.db96q4&CONTEXT=848728610.8331&hitnum=4 To: dianne@sandelman.ocunix.on.ca Subject: getdoc.xp?recnum=9175325&server=dnserver.db96q4&CONTEXT=848728610.8331&hitnum=4 Status: OR [Previous] [Next] [Hitlist] [Get Thread] [Author Profile] [Post] [Post] [Reply] [LINK][LINK] _________________________________________________________________ Article 5 of 17 Subject: Stop 3 Gorges Dam! / Action Alert From: Kenneth Walsh Date: 1996/10/24 Message-Id: <54okk9$mi6@news.missouri.edu> Article Segment 2 of 4 (Get Previous Segment) (Get All 4 Segments) The Hermes-Buergschaften decision to support the Three Gorges Dam undercuts the attempts of Germany's allies and international institutions to strengthen environmental peformance of export- credit agencies. So doing, it opens wide the floodgates for an environmentally destructive, economically wasteful competition among export-credit agencies around the world to ignore even minimal ecological, developmental, and human rights criteria in their use of national taxpayer funds to support private business ventures. The environmental, economic and political damage that will ensue betrays Germany's efforts since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to be a leader in global environmental protection -- efforts which our organizations in the past have praised and admired. Hermes-Buergschaften's approval of support for the Three Gorges Dam flouts the environmental and developmental policies of German development assistance agencies and undermines European efforts to strengthen the environmental performance of export- credit agencies. For instance, the decision flouts Article 130v of the Maastricht Treaty which calls for "coherence" between the development assistance policies of EU member states and the export-credit activities of member states. In almost all cases, those development assistance programs now include environmental assessment and ecological sustainability in their basic policy goals. The decision also undercuts the approval by EU member states of the OECD Development Assistance Committee guidelines on environmental assessment of development projects and guidelines concerning forcible resettlement (in this case, based on existing World Bank policy). The Hermes-Buergschaften decision is particularly regrettable because it undercuts the decision of the US Export-Import Bank on May 30, 1996 to withhold export credit financing for the Three Gorges project on environmental grounds and ignores the decision of the World Bank not to become involved in financing the project. In support of the U.S. position and in recognition of the project's extraordinary environmental and social impacts, the Japanese Export-Import Bank has also to date made no decision to finance the dam. In denying support for the Three Gorges Dam, the US Export-Import ((Ex-Im) Bank's Board of Directors cited a long list of major concerns, including: * Water pollution: Lack of plans to treat industrial and municipal waste in the Yangtze River watershed or to clean up waste sites which would be submerged in the reservoir will jeopardize the reservoir's water quality and public health. * Accumulation of sediments in the reservoir: If dredged, toxic sediments could pose disposal problems. If left in the reservoir, they could reduce the dam's generating capacity and financial viability. * Failure to provide for watershed protection: Project plans do not make adequate provision for reforestation and soil conservation to control reservoir sedimentation, threatening the dams generating capacity and financial viability. * Threats to endangered aquatic and terrestrial species: The dam's 350 square mile reservoir as well as changes in river flow will destroy or modify habitat in the Yangtze River watershed, in downstream lakes, and in the River's estuary. * Environmental and socioeconomic impacts: 1.3 million people will be displaced by the reservoir. Resettlement plans lack adequate provision for land management, infrastructure improvement, regional planning, population distribution, public health protection, funding sources, and clearly delineated administrative responsibilities. And, * Destruction of cultural resources in an historic center of Chinese civilization. (Get Next Article Segment) [LINK][LINK] _________________________________________________________________ [Previous] [Next] [Hitlist] [Get Thread] [Author Profile] [Post] [Post] [Reply] _________________________________________________________________ Home Power Search Post to Usenet Ask DN Wizard Help Why use DN? | Advertising Info | New Features! | Policy Stuff Copyright © 1996 Deja News, Inc. All rights reserved.