More Than 1/3 Of China's 85,000 Dams Rated Unsafe - China Daily

More than a third of China's 85,000 dams suffer defects from aging and could be threatened by flooding, the chief of China's flood-fighting agency said as the country continues to be whipped by storms.

E Jingping, secretary general of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and vice minister of water resources, said late on Monday that his biggest worry was the safety of China's dams, which could easily collapse during heavy storms. He said this during an online chat at www.gov.cn, the website of the Chinese central government.

Typhoons and tropical storms have frequently struck eastern and southern China and the surrounding regions from July to August this year.

Six typhoons have hit the region so far this year, and the death toll from the latest tropical storm Prapiroon, reached 77, according to a Xinhua report. In August 1975, some 26,000 people of central China's Henan Province died after two dams collapsed, E said. "What I fear most is dam collapses, and I think it's not just me. Party and state leaders at every level fear this," he said.

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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-08/08/content_659827.htm

shopping at Wal-Mart, they should have plenty of money to make repairs and replace dangerous bridges.

Meanwhile, here in America, our bridges continue to fall apart and decay, with no money for repairs, because stupid Americans are shopping at Wal-Mart, creating jobs and income over there, and costing us jobs and tax dollars over here.

Stupid, stupid Americans. The money they save at Wal-Mart is now being spent keeping their gas tanks filled, so they really aren't saving anything and they're costing the country much, much more. No wonder the Chinese will end up owning all of us.