Project a blessing for some villagers, but a curse for the environment

Six scaffolding frameworks have been erected along the banks of Nu River at Yabiluo, 60km upstream from Liuku town.

Labourers tie up small hydrographic survey ships along the banks, and about a dozen surveyors chat and rest in tents.

Deep drilling holes can be found everywhere on the high mountain, through which the river has been cut. The damage from preliminary work for the dam project can easily be seen, with large areas of barren land standing out from the otherwise verdant mountain.

But there are no flags or other signs representing the project developers. Last year, environmentalists who visited the site took photographs of flags for the Guodian Group on a suspension bridge at Yabiluo. But they were later taken down before the arrival of a Unesco inspection team.

Some villagers living close to the Yabiluo site have been hired to work for the surveying team from Beijing.

'They have been working on the project for the past four years,' said a farmer who worked on the site as a guard. 'It is good because we can work on the project and have regular income.'