Beijing ? China plans to relocate up to 4 million people from areas surrounding the Three Gorges Dam – the world’s biggest hydropower project – because of rising concerns over the environment and landslides, state media reported Friday.

For years, China steamed ahead with construction of the project, dismissing most warnings of environmental peril. In the last month, however, officials have made unusually candid statements that the country could face a catastrophe if it fails to act quickly to stop riverbank erosion and other problems caused by the dam.

The reservoir already has forced 1.4 million people out of their homes amid criticism the project has wreaked ecological havoc and forced people to move to places where they cannot make a living.

On Friday, state media and the region’s local government signaled rising concern over the dam’s impact, saying as many as several million more people would have to be moved from areas adjacent to the reservoir in a form of “environmental migration.”