THE THREE GORGES DAM

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Three Gorges Dam, dam on the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) just west of the city
of Yichang in Hubei province, China. A straight-crestedconcrete gravity structure, the Three
Gorges Dam is 2,335 metres (7,660 feet) long with a maximum height of 185 metres (607 feet).
It incorporates 28 million cubic metres (37 million cubic yards) of concrete and 463,000 metric
tons of steel into its design. When construction of the dam officially began in 1994, it was the
largest engineering project in China. At the time of its completion in 2006, it was the largest dam
structure in the world. Submerging large areas of the Qutang, Wu, and Xiling gorges for some
600 km (375 miles) upstream, the dam has created an immense deepwater reservoir allowing
oceangoing freighters to navigate 2,250 km (1,400 miles) inland from Shanghai on the East
China Sea to the inland city of Chongqing. Limited hydroelectric power production began in
2003. The dam’s 26 existing turbines, in operation since 2008, generate approximately 18,000
megawatts of electricity for Shanghai and other cities—as much as that produced by 15 coal-
burning power stations. When six more generators become operational in 2011, the dam will
generate 22,500 megawatts of electricity. The dam also is intended to protect millions of people
from the periodic flooding that plagues the Yangtze basin.

First discussed in the 1920s by Chinese Nationalist Party leaders, the idea for the Three Gorges
Dam was given new impetus in 1953 when Chinese leaderMao Zedong ordered feasibility
studies of a number of sites. Detailed planning for the project began in 1955. Its proponents
insisted it would control disastrous flooding along the Yangtze, facilitate inland trade, and
provide much-needed power for central China, but the dam was not without its detractors.
Criticisms of the Three Gorges project began as soon as the plans were proposed and continued
through its construction. Key problems included the danger of dam collapse, the displacement of
some 1.2 million people (critics insisted the figure was actually 1.9 million) living in nearly 500
cities, towns, and villages along the river, and the destruction of magnificent scenery and
countless rare architectural and archaeological sites. There were also fears that human and
industrial waste from Chongqing and other cities would pollute the reservoir and even that the
huge amount of water impounded in the reservoir could trigger earthquakes and landslides. Some
Chinese and foreign engineers argued that a number of smaller and far-cheaper and less-
problematic dams on the Yangtze tributaries could generate as much power as the Three Gorges
Dam and control flooding equally as well. Construction of those dams, they maintained, would
enable the government to meet its main priorities without the risks.
Because of these problems, work on the
Three Gorges Dam was delayed for nearly
40 years as the Chinese government
struggled to reach a decision to carry
through with plans for the project. In 1992
Premier Li Peng, who had himself trained
as an engineer, was finally able to persuade
the National People’s Congress to ratify the
decision to build the dam, though almost a
third of its members abstained or voted
against the project—an unprecedented sign of resistance from a normally acquiescent body.
Pres.Jiang Zemin did not accompany Li to the official inauguration of the dam in 1994, and the
World Bank refused to advance China funds to help with the project, citing major environmental
and other concerns.
Nevertheless, the Three Gorges project moved ahead. In 1993 work started on access roads and
electricity to the site. Workers blocked and diverted the river in 1997, bringing to a close the first
phase of construction. In 2003 the reservoir began to fill, the navigation locks were put into
preliminary operation, and the first of the dam’s generators was connected to the grid,
completing the second phase of construction. (Following completion of this second phase, some
1,200 sites of historical and archaeological importance that once lined the middle reaches of
theYangtze River vanished as floodwaters rose.) Construction of the main wall of the dam was
completed in 2006.
The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydropower project and most notorious dam. The
massive project sets records for number of people displaced (more than 1.2 million), number of
cities and towns flooded (13 cities, 140 towns, 1,350 villages), and length of reservoir (more than
600 kilometers). The project has been plagued by corruption, spiraling costs, environmental
impacts, human rights violationsand resettlement difficulties.
The Three Gorges Dam is a model for disaster, yet Chinese companies are replicating this model
both domestically and internationally. Within China, huge hydropower cascades have been
proposed and are being constructed in some of China’s most pristine and biologically and
culturally diverse river basins - the Lancang (Upper Mekong) River, Nu (Salween) River
andupstream of Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River and tributaries.The environmental
impacts of the project are profound, and are likely to get worse as time goes on. The
submergence of hundreds of factories, mines and waste dumps, and the presence of massive
industrial centers upstream are creating a festering bog of effluent, silt, industrial pollutants
andrubbish in the reservoir. Erosion of the reservoir and downstream riverbanks is causing
landslides, and threatening one of the world’s biggest fisheries in the East China Sea. The weight
of the reservoir's water has many scientists concerned over reservoir-induced seismicity. Critics
have also argued that the project may have exacerbated recent droughts by withholding critical
water supply to downstream users and ecoystems, and through the creation of a microclimate by
its giant reservoir. In 2011, China's highest government body for the first time officially
acknowledged the "urgent problems" of the Three Gorges Dam.

Pollution in the Three Gorges Reservoir

Through the Three Gorges Project, China has acquired the know-how to build large hydropower
schemes, and has begun exporting similar projects around the world. Now that the project's
problems have been acknowledged, it is important to draw lessons from the experience so that
the problems of the Yangtze dam are not repeated.
While Three Gorges is the world’s biggest hydro project, the problems at Three Gorges are not
unique. Around the world, large dams are causing social and environmental devastation
while better alternatives are being ignored.
International Rivers protects rivers and defends the rights of the communities which depend on
them. We monitor the social and environmental problems of the Three Gorges Dam, and work to
ensure that the right lessons are drawn for energy and water projects in China and around the
world.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_gorges_dam