China on Tuesday sought to quell fears over huge problems surrounding the Three Gorges Dam, arguing that the advantages outweighed any troubles with the world's biggest hydroelectric facility.
"Overall, regarding the Three Gorges project's impact on the ecological environment, the benefits outweigh the negative consequences," Wang Xiaofeng, the head of the office in charge of constructing the dam, told reporters.
Wang was brought before the press after he and other Chinese officials warned recently of a plethora of problems related to the dam -- which began operations last year -- including landslides, soil erosion and water pollution.
Chinese officials who spoke at a conference on the dam in September warned of an environmental "catastrophe" from the massive project, in comments that were carried by the official Xinhua news agency and made global headlines.
"We cannot relax our guard against ecological and environmental security problems brought on by the Three Gorges project," Xinhua quoted Wang as saying at that conference.
"We absolutely cannot sacrifice our environment in exchange for temporary economic prosperity."
The conference was told that the huge weight of the water behind the dam had started to erode the Yangtze river's banks in many places, which, together with frequent fluctuations in water levels, had triggered a series of landslides.
Official media then said last month that an additional four million people near the dam would need to be relocated to protect the region's environment.
But since then China's government-controlled press has published virtually only good news on the project in what has appeared to be a strong campaign to counter the remarks made at the conference.
Wang on Tuesday stressed the "ecological benefits" brought by the project, such as reducing flooding and siltation for the Yangtze river, as well as cutting China's reliance on polluting coal for energy.
He also insisted that any problems related to the dam were not a surprise, and were in line with an environmental impact assessment carried out in 1991, three years before work began on the dam.
"We already suggested... there were negative consequences and we were going to overcome them," he said.
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