Huge Yangtze River Dam OKd by China’s Parliament : Dispute: Project would be world’s largest electricity producer, but would flood scenic Three Gorges section.

Controversial plans for construction of a giant Yangtze River dam won approval from China’s rubber-stamp Parliament on Friday, but worries about the project’s wisdom were reflected in an extraordinarily low level of delegate support.

The dam, which will flood the river’s spectacularly scenic Three Gorges, will be the largest hydroelectric producer in the world when it is completed, with 18,000 megawatts of generating capacity. That electricity will transform the economy of central China, eliminating power shortages, bringing development and easing transportation, supporters of the project argue. And there is little doubt that the dam can produce enough electricity to pay off its estimated $11-billion cost quickly.

It would also help to control the periodic devastating flooding of the Yangtze, which over the centuries has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

The rising waters behind the new dam, however, will submerge villages and towns, and even part of the city of Wanxian. Estimates of the number of people who will need relocation range from 725,000 to more than 1.1 million.

Concerns over environmental destruction, technical feasibility and financing have delayed the long-discussed project for decades. Prominent among the objections has been the prospect of flooding the Three Gorges section, 120 miles of soaring cliffs that have been celebrated in Chinese art and literature for hundreds of years.

With the dam built, the landmark cliffs would no longer soar quite so high above the river. But backers of the project note that they are so tall that they would be far from totally submerged--and they argue that a 350-mile-long lake behind the dam would open up access to other scenic areas.

Supporters of the dam, while acknowledging problems, argue that its benefits are more important. The government insists that sedimentation and other technical problems mentioned by critics can be solved.

The Communist Party’s top leadership, which exercises firm control over Parliament, finally announced last August that it intends to begin construction during this decade. An estimated 18 years and $11 billion will be needed for completion.

“It is necessary to launch the project soon for the sake of the long-term stability of the national economy as a whole and the safety of the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze,” Wan Li, chairman of the National People’s Congress, China’s nominal Parliament, declared in announcing the leadership’s decision last summer.

Throughout the winter, China’s media were filled with propaganda in favor of the project, while opposing voices were not heard. But in voting Friday by 2,633 congress delegates, 1,767 voted in favor of the project, while 177 opposed it, 664 formally abstained and 25 failed to cast ballots. For an important decision to win only 67% support in the usually compliant congress is unprecedented.

The only other time anything similar has happened was in 1989, when about 60% of the delegates supported a much less important bill, which granted special lawmaking powers to one of China’s special economic zones.

The congress’ decision did not set a date for construction to begin, but merely authorized the government to move forward once technical plans and financial arrangements have been made.

As Friday’s vote was about to be taken, Huang Shunxing, a delegate representing Taiwan, which Beijing views as a Chinese province, stood up at his seat and began shouting out an objection. Photographers and television crews rushed to get pictures, but he was otherwise ignored, and voting proceeded.

Speaking later with reporters in the lobby of the Great Hall of the People, where the congress was meeting, Huang said he rose to complain because he had been denied the right to speak.

“Today, they didn’t let me speak,” he complained. “This is wrong. . . . They don’t have any legal basis to refuse to let me speak.”

Delegates have been allowed to discuss the dam in small group sessions, but there has been no debate on the subject by the full congress.

Huang outlined for reporters some of the reasons why he and many others oppose the dam project, saying that he feels it is mistaken on ecological, economic and technical grounds.

He predicted that perhaps a century from now, silt will destroy Shanghai’s harbor at the mouth of the Yangtze. He argued that funds allocated for the dam could be better used for smaller hydroelectric projects plus other needs such as education. And he argued that China risks technical failure in building the dam, which is to be 475 feet high and 1.6 miles long.

“If it fails, it’s disastrous,” Huang declared. “Tens of thousands would die.”

Huang has played something of a gadfly’s role at previous congress sessions in 1988 and 1989, when he created scenes on other issues. He is able to get away with such activities because of his special background: He defected from Taiwan to the mainland in 1985. Authorities thus tolerate behavior that would bring sharp punishment to an ordinary delegate.

Minister of Water Resources Yang Zhenhuai said at a news conference today that while China could build such a dam with just its own financial and technical resources, it wants foreign cooperation so it can use “the most advanced technology and equipment.”

Yang also said that divergent views on a project of this complexity are entirely understandable and would exist in any country. “I believe the outcome of this vote is satisfactory,” he said.

Harnessing the Yangtze

Chinese legislators approved damming the Yangtze River to build the world’s largest hydroelectric project. Here are some facts: Location: Hubei Province Size: 475 ft. by 1.6 miles Cost: $11 billion Building time: 18 years Purpose: To curb flooding that has killed hundreds of thousands and to generate a cheap supply of energy Generating power: 18,000 megawatts (40% more than the largest dam now in operation) Residents to be displaced: 1.1 million 5 Biggest hydroelectric dams in operation 1. Russia: Turukhansk 2. Brazil/Paraguay: Itaipu 3. U.S.: Grand Coulee, Washington state 4. Venezuela: Guri 5. Brazil: Tucurui