CHINA'S plan to build the Three Gorges dam across the Yangtze river with a 185-m-high reservoir level "would not be an economically viable proposition", according to the World Bank.

Probe International reports the World Bank endorsed a Canadian feasibility study of the dam, which contained evidence that raising the water level above 160 m would cause "resettlement problems... that may become unmanageable".

The bank has, however, failed to warn international financiers that the design is not economically viable and the Chinese government is pressing ahead with its plans despite the bank's warnings and opposition from an international coalition of nine environmental groups (See Down To Earth, August 15, 1993).