China's Three Gorges Dam project may force more resettlements

Another 100,000 people may have to move away from China's Three Gorges Dam, due to the risk of disastrous landslides and bank collapses around the reservoir of the world's biggest hydroelectric facility.

State media reports posted on a government website cited an official with the Ministry of Land Resources as telling China National Radio that the number of landslides and other disasters had increased 70% since the water level in the huge reservoir rose to its maximum level in 2010.

Liu Yuan, the ministry official, said surging waves from such events also posed a threat to shipping.

More than 1.3 million people already have been resettled due to the huge project on the Yangtze River.