Several ecological programs planned for the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest one of its type, have remained stalled due to a shortage of funds, authorities said on Wednesday.

The Three Gorges Dam Reservior [enet]

Scientists and scholars have expressed doubts about the dam's impact on the environment, such as the increasing risks of landslides, waterborne diseases and earthquakes.

In a bid to put the doubts at rest, the government launched a 10-year pollution control plan in 2001. But the results have not been optimistic, experts said.

So far, only 18.6 percent of the water environment protection projects in the Three Gorges area have been finished, while all the nine projects on water pollution caused by ships have yet to kick off, Vice-Minister of Environmental Protection Zhang Lijun said at a meeting in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality.

Officials from related provinces have their own explanations, but shortage of funds figures on top of every list.

He Duanqi, vice-governor of Yunnan, was quoted in the China Youth Daily as saying that the total investment in the 10-year plan on pollution control in the province should be more than 2 billion yuan ($294 million), but the central government only allocated 345 million yuan.

The local government has difficulties generating the money, He said.

Seconding He, Zhang Tong, vice-governor of Hubei, said ecological compensation should be considered as a way to generate funds for the projects.

Zhang Tong said the central government could use a certain amount of power taxes to establish an ecological and environmental compensation fund to protect the environment along the Yangtze River.

But according to Vice-Minister Zhang Lijun, lack of money is not the reason for the delay in such projects.

He said the deadline of the 10-year plan is still six months away, and by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan in December 2010, provinces or municipalities that fail to finish 60 percent of the projects will receive punishments.

Companies that do not meet their pollution control targets by the yearend will be suspended, he said.

Zhang said an alarm system should be established in the Three Gorges area as well as the upstream area to help deal with sudden pollutions.

Since 2003, seven rivers in the Three Gorges area in Hubei have been plagued by a blue algae outbreak.

Climate change and the construction of water reservoirs have increased the possibilities of the blue algae outbreak in the Yangtze River, Zhang Tong said.

Zhang Lijun said some water samples in the Three Gorges area were found unsafe, adding the blue algae outbreak is increasing not only in rivers but also in lakes.

The industries along the river also threaten the environment in the Three Gorges area, because some heavy-polluting enterprises are emitting pollutants into the river, Zhang Lijun said.

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