JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENT & DEVELOPMENTSalazar / THE THREE GORGES PROJECT REGIONAL REPORTS Damming the Child of the Ocean: The Three Gorges Project

world. International criticism regarding the economic and environmental via-bility of the project has also made it one of the world’s most controversial devel-opment projects. Critics cite human rights violations, ecological disaster, cul-tural erosion, and economic and financial risks as some of the problems with the project. Yet, despite international and domestic criticism, the Chinese govern-ment has pledged its determination to complete the project, claiming increased energy production capacity, improved navigational capabilities and greatly needed flood control as impetus. Although many of the traditional funding mechanisms for international development have refrained from providing financial support for the project, foreign direct investment has continued to flow in. This raises questions regarding the influence of private capital verses that of traditional funding mechanisms in controversial development schemes such as the Three Gorges Dam. In 1994, China began work on the largest construction project in the world, the Three Gorges Dam. This dam will be the biggest hydroelectri