Geological disasters in the Three Gorge Dam areas have been brought under effective control but hazards such as landslides may still happen, Wang Xiaofeng, director of the Office of the Three Gorges Project Committee of the State Council, said Tuesday.

As the water level will rise to 175 meters eventually in 2009 from the current 156 meters, the collapse of embankments will be unavoidable and may trigger more danger, Wang told a press conference held by the Press Office of the State Council.

Describing the Three Gorges Dam area as "geologically vulnerable", he said the government had fully acknowledged the potential damages to local ecology long before the world's largest hydrological project was started in 1994.

"I think we can minimize the damages and losses as the government will closely monitor local ecology and preserve environment," said Wang.

Citing a feasibility report compiled in 1991, Wang reaffirmed that the negative geological impacts of the conservancy program were less than expected. "I am sure time will prove that the conclusions China made on the project were scientific," he said.

Li Yong'an, general manager of the Three Gorges Project Development and Construction Corporation, backed him up by referring to the frequent landslides around the Yangtze River valley before the project began.

More than 40 landslides had happened in the Three Gorges Dam area in the 1980s, with one worst case recorded in the Zigui County of Hubei Province, resulting in a 12-day suspension of shipping services on the Yangtze River, he said.

"Since the water level rose from 60 meters in 2003 to the current 156 meters, no major loss of life or injuries have been caused by any major geological disasters in the Three Gorges Dam area," said Li Yong'an.

More than 12 billion yuan (about 1.62 billion U.S. dollars) has so far been invested by the central government in the preservation of local geology.

A new plan, whose costs are yet to be disclosed, will be implemented on a pilot basis to further optimize local ecology including protecting the sources of drinkable water, urban and rural pollutant reduction and tree planting, said Li.

To cut pollutant emissions, more than 1,600 factories have been closed down while 190,000 people moved elsewhere. So far, the State Council has approved the allocation of 52.9 billion yuan (7.15 billion U.S. dollars) to subsidize people moving out of the reservoir area, he said.

"We also encouraged other provinces and cities to help the development of their resettlement area and the support fund from them had reached 34.1 billion yuan (4.6 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of last year," Wang Xiaofeng said.

All the money has been used directly on migrants, including relocation compensations, an annual allowance of 600 yuan to each migrant from rural areas and investment in roads, schools and hospitals around their new homes, he said.

In the future, Wang said, the priorities of ecological and environmental protection would focus on the sustainable use of Three Gorges Dam and water pollutant prevention in the Dam areas and its upper reaches, as well as the protection of bio-diversity.

Describing the situation of algae or aquatic weed in the reservoir areas as stable, Wang ruled out the trend of vast outbreak, acknowledging that the governments was watching the situation closely.

Replying to previous Xinhua reports about the "environmental catastrophe" around the Three Gorge areas, Wang said that the hidden troubles and problems he had foreseen at the forum in Wuhan in late September was "not at all unexpected or admitted for the first time by Chinese officials".

This forum heard from Tan Qiwei, vice mayor of Chongqing, who said the shore of the reservoir had collapsed in 91 places and a total of 36 km had caved in.

The forum also heard from Huang Xuebin, head of the Headquarters for Prevention and Control of Geological Disasters in the Three Gorges Reservoir, who echoed that frequent geological disasters have threatened the lives of residents around the reservoir area. Hubei Vice Governor Li Chunming added at the forum that clear water discharged from the Three Gorges Dam has also threatened the safety of the protective embankments downstream.

Wang cited the conclusions made by the State Environmental Protection Administration of China, which said that the Three Gorges had brought more benefits than damages to the local ecology.

"My concern with the problems is based on the stance that we want to build a first-rate hydrological project with first-rate ecology," he said.

The key to improving water quality, he noted, was to reduce pollution sources. So far, 50 sewage plants and more than 40 garbage disposal plants have been built around the dam areas at the cost of 39.2 billion yuan (about 5.3 billion U.S. dollars).

Li Yong'an said that the Three Gorges dam was functioning well in combating floods and drought this year. "The Three Gorges dam could only affect the climate within an area less than 10 kilometers around it and the temperature of no more than one degree centigrade," he said, replying to criticism that the project was responsible for Chongqing's severe floods this year and drought last year.

The latest statement from the Office of the Three Gorges Project Committee of the State Council said that power generating units at the dam had turned out a total of 200 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity so far since July 2003, and had provided power supply for energy-thirsty southern and eastern China as well as central China.

Wang also confirmed that the relocation of another four million people from Chongqing did not concern the Three Gorges Dam but was part of plans for local industrial restructuring and labor transformation.