Workers repair the site where last October a huge chunk of hillside broke free nd slipped into the valley in Badong (AFP/File, Peter Parks)
BADONG, China — Last October, a huge chunk of hillside broke free in this city on the Yangtze River, and the deafening landslide nearly knocked Wang Songlian's home and a dozen others into a deep ravine.
But such incidents are hardly news in Badong, where the scars of frequent landslides are sprinkled throughout the city, and local residents blame seismic changes wrought by China's giant and controversial Three Gorges Dam project.
"It's due to the dam. There have been more landslides and tremors since 2003 (when the reservoir began to fill). It is definitely getting more dangerous," said Wang, 66.
Predicaments such as the one experienced by the people of Badong have become the subject of unprecedented debate since Beijing admitted in May that the dam had spawned a range of problems.
The government has long held up the world's largest hydroelectric project as a symbol of its engineering prowess, a solution to the frequent floods of China's longest river and a source of badly-needed electricity.
But a recent drought and the government's mea culpa have refocused attention on problems that dam critics say will have a far-reaching impact on China's water resources and on millions of people.
Dam construction began in 1994 despite warnings the enormous weight of the reservoir would dangerously alter central China's geology, uproot millions of people, poison water supplies by trapping pollution and disrupt the Yangtze watershed.
Criticisms were brushed aside and some critics jailed, but problems have reached a level the government can no longer ignore, said Patricia Adams, head of Toronto-based Probe International, which chronicles the dam's problems.
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