Egshiglen 12C ESS class
Three Gorges Dam
Three Gorges Dam is located in the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) just west of the city
of Yichang in Hubei province, China. 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.
Strengths
Flood Control
Controlling flood is one of the most significant functions of the Three Gorges Dam, and flooding
used to be a major problem for the seasonal Yangtze River. With millions of people living
downstream of the dam and many large and important cities like Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai
situated adjacent to Yangtze River, flooding control has been one of the most issues for China.
The flood storage capacity of Three Gorges Dam Reservoir is 22 Cubic Meters, and this capacity
can reduce the frequency of major downstream flooding from once every ten years to once
every 100 years.
Power Generation
As the world’s largest power station of 22,500 MW, Three Gorges Dam project has installed 32
main turbines with two smaller generators to power the plant itself. From 2003 to 2014, the
annual power generating is increasing and there was 83.7 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2013 and
98.8 TWh in 2014. This electric generating capacity has largely supported the whole nation’s
electricity usage.
Cruise Ships Navigation
The installment of ship locks and equipped with a ship lift on Dam, the Yangtze Three Gorges
cruise ships heading towards much safer.
Besides, the Three Gorges Dam reservoir goes as far as to the southwest metropolis Chongqing,
therefore it improves 660 kilometers waterway, and largely enable 10000 – tonnage fleets to
navigate between Shanghai and Chongqing. The annual one – way navigation capacity of the
Yangtze at the dam will be upgraded from ten million tons to fifty million tons.
Farmland irrigations in dry seasons
Three Gorges Dam plays a role in irrigating using water stored in the reservoir. When the
drought occurs, the water can be discharged to the downstream, thus people can draw water
to irrigate their farmlands to ensure a harvest. On usual days, the water in Three Gorges
reservoir can also be transferred to other places for irrigation and drinking through South-North
Water Transfer Project, as long as water is needed.
Weaknesses
Water Pollution
Along with the river flowing, there is a large number of land experiencing erosion, which leads
to tons of sands and pebbles into the Yangtze River and stay at the upstream and makes great
water pollution about Yangtze River.
Mass Migration
Migration of 1.2 million people in Chongqing and Hubei is the biggest difficulty as well as the
con of the Three Gorges Dam Project. The fund for migration covers 45% of the total
investment. The migrants had to leave and watch their homeland being flooded. Some of them
were relocated nearby outside the dam area; more were relocated far from their hometown in
Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, etc.
Environmental Problem
In order to build the dam, the surrounding landscape has been changed largely, which has
caused some problems related to climate deteriorated, plants and wildlife disappeared,
historical relics submerged, etc.
It affects biodiversity
Some percentage of the vascular plants in the world is found in China. Not only that, half of the
animal and plant species in China – including the beloved giant panda – could not be found
elsewhere. Twenty percent of Chinese seed plants alone are found in the Three Gorges area.
Biodiversity is threatened as the dam can flood habitats and reduce water flow. Not only that, it
can also change weather patterns. Even worse, economic development has led to deforestation
and pollution in Central China resulting in the endangerment of other plant species.
