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dam-l (Tibet) World Bank Sends Inspection Team To China To Probe Dam Project (AFP)
World Bank Sends Inspection Team To China To Probe Dam Project
WASHINGTON, Oct 6, 1999 --
(Agence France Presse) The World
Bank has sent a team of experts to
China to evaluate criticisms of a vast
dam and irrigation project it wants to
support, a Bank official said here
Tuesday.
The team is expected to visit the site
of the project, located in western
Qinghai province, on the week end
and will spend 20 days carrying out
studies and interviews, according to
Antonia Macedo, assistant director of
the World Bank's inspection unit.
The controversy centers on plans to re-settle some 58,000 people,
essentially Chinese farmers, to land inhabited by Tibetans.
Critics contend that the resettlement will make Tibetans in the
region even more of a minority and will also have an adverse
environmental impact.
The inspection team will prepare a report for World Bank officials
by the end of the year. A decision by the Bank's executive board
on whether to go ahead with the project is not expected before
early 2000, Macedo said.
The overall venture calls for loans of 160 million dollars, of which
40 million would be for the contested resettlement.
The Bank approved the project in June but financing has been held
up pending an assessment of the criticisms. ((c) 1999 Agence
France Presse)