Three Gorges Dam on Yangtze River

Sanmenxia

DAMS AND HYDRO POWER IN CHINA• China gets 5 percent of it energy and 20 percent of its electricity from hydro energy. China already has many dams and has plans to build lots more. Share of the worlds dams: 1) China (45 percent); 2) the United States (14 percent); 3) India (9 percent); 4) Japan (6 percent); Other countries (26 percent). • China boasts nearly half of the world’s 50,000 large dams—three times more than the United States —and construction continues.•Twenty major dams punctuate the Yellow River and another 18 are scheduled to be built by 2030.

Today, China has more than 20,000 dams over 49 feet high – the most of any country in the world.

The world’s three largest dams:1.Three Gorges (China) 18,200

megawatts2.Itaipu, Brazil and Paraguay

12,600 megawatts3.Grand Coulee Dam (U.S.,

Washington State) 10,000

megawatts

Reasons to Build Dam

• Improve navigation along the Yangtze River. Major Highway for movement of coal, other goods and people

• Prevent seasonal flooding which used to cause loss of life and property along river.

• Provide hydroelectric power desperately needed energy for growing population

• Reduce dependence on coal with environmental and health and safety issues

Sun Yat Sen first proposed building a dam

on the Yangtze (Chang Jiang). The idea was shelved due to unfavorable political and economic conditions.

Idea was first proposed in 1919

History

• 1919- The Three Gorges projects was first mentioned

• Work was halted and restarted many times• December 14, 1993: US Bureau of

Reclamation terminated the agreement for technical services– Due to economic and environmental impacts

Three Gorges Dam

• In 1994, the Chinese government began construction on the Three Gorges Dam.

• At 1.4 miles long and 630 feet high (roughly the height of a 50-story building), it is the world's largest dam.

• It produced a giant lake, or reservoir, 350 miles long and holds more than a trillion gallons of water.

General Facts

• Took 17 Years to complete• Cost about $59 billion • World’s largest hydroelectric project• Generates 22.5 gigawatts of power

– Enough to power Pakistan or Switzerland

Three Gorges Dam Facts• The resulting 400 mile long reservoir will supply

enough water to generate 84 billion kilowatts-per-hour of electricity.

• The dam wall is made of concrete and is about 2,309 metres (7,575 ft) long, and 101 metres (331 ft) high.

• The wall is 115 metres (377.3 ft) thick on the bottom and 40 metres (131.2 ft) thick on top.

• The project used 27,200,000 cubic metres of concrete, 463,000 tonnes of steel, enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers, and moved about 102,600,000 cubic metres of earth.

Size Largest construction project since the Great Wall

A 610-ft. wall will run about 1.3 miles

from bank to bankMajor source of

electrical power for China

Produces 18,000 megawatts – the equivalent to about 15 – 20 nuclear power plants or 10 big coal-fired power stations burning 50 million tons of coal.

Satellite View of Three Gorges Dam at Yangtze River using Google Earth Data

View of the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.Three Gorges Dam crossing Yangtze River at Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei province, China.

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Conflicting Goals and Problems• Flooding, Dam-Building, and Related Issues

– China’s Yangtze River is an important resource (3rd largest volume)

– The Three Gorges Controversy• Chinese government wants to dam the Yangtze

(Chang Jiang) River with the largest hydroelectric dam in the world

–Purpose: control floods & generate electricity–Problems: Will jeopardize animal species,

flood a major scenic attraction, and displace up to 2 million people

As the dam fills and the valley is flooded, towns and villages like this on the hillside are at risk of being destroyed.Where do people from these places go?

The city of Wuchan will be flooded to the red arrow line when the reservoir is completely filled. The water level will be elevated 574 ft. above Yangtze River surface.

Ship lock consist of 5 locks each:

918 ft. long 35 ft. wide With a water depth of

16.4 ft.

Towns and villages have had to be destroyed to build the dam.

Building the dam – how has the dam affected these people?

This is what the dam looks like now.

Flooded Towns being replaced by new apartments above the 175 m water level

Collecting garbage from the flooded cities

Displaced people are moved up the slopes or sent to other areas of China. Families separatedNew bridges replace submerged onesNew building often on old landslip areas due to shortage of flat land for building

Reservoir Induced Landslides caused by buildup of groundwater inside sediments along side of Gorge.

Three Gates Gorge Dam

Note High Silt Load of River

Note Re-emergence of agricultural land due to silting in of reservoir.

Positives/Benefits of Dam

• The Three Gorges reservoir acts as a buffer and can lessen the risk of floods.

Positives: Flooding Control


• Massive floods have killed many people– 1931: 145,000 people killed– 1935: 142,000 people killed– 1954: 30,000 people killed, one million lost homes

Positives: Flooding Control• By storing waters that would have causes floods, the long-term

benefits are endless.• This massive effort will allow the government to control the river's

chronic flooding, which caused more than 2,000 deaths in 1998 and left nearly 14 million people homeless.

• Improved flood protection along the Yangtze River• To control flooding downstream on the East China Plain.• Every so often these plains are devastated by a major flood where a

thousand people die, a million lose their homes and 5 million have to be rescued.

• The government built dozens of sewage and garbage treatment plants.• Since, 1951 run-off in the Yangtze Basin has decreased by over one

third.


• In 1998 flooding in the area expected to be controlled by the dam resulted in 4,000 dead, 14 million left homeless and $24 billion in economic loss.

• Historically, the people living along the Yangtze have suffered tremendous losses due to flooding

• In 1954, 30, 000 more died in the floods or from diseases brought on by the flooding and 19 million people were affected directly or indirectly and part of the railway could not function for 100 days

• Lessen the frequency of large floods from once in 10 years to once in 100 years.


• In 1998, a flood caused billions of dollars in damages, killed 1, 500 people, and flooded 2,000 square kilometers of farmland, and affected about 200 million people

• 1998 flood resulted total loss of about 25 billion Euros

• In 1931, 145,000 people drowned and over 300,000 hectares of farmland was flooded

Positives: Water Shortage Issue

• It will produce a giant lake, or reservoir, 350 miles long and hold more than a trillion gallons of water.

• The reservoir will increase water availability

• There will be more water available for irrigation, industrial uses, and human consumption in the Yangtze River Basin and in water-deficient northern China to about 400 million people

Positives: New Tourism

• In addition, ocean vessels will be able to travel farther inland, which will boost trade and tourism, and hydroelectric power from the dam will generate inexpensive electricity, thereby cutting greenhouse gas emissions and the use of coal and fossil fuels.

• Reservoir will boost tourism because tourists can reach natural views and vistas by the locks that they were not able to do before

Positives: Navigation and More Trade

• To move water to the arid north.• To improve shipping so the ocean-going ships can reach

Chongqing. • By building the dam, it increases the depth of the Yangtze

River and would allow ships to travel 6000 kilometers farther upstream

• River shipping through central Yangtze estimated to increase from 10 million to 50 million tons a yr., with transportation costs cut by 30-37%

Positives: Navigation and More Trade

• In 2006, 50 million more tons of cargo moved through the system up from 18 million tons before the dam was built

• In 2007, the 50 million was exceeded• Shipping costs should drop by 35 to 37%• The ship locks system is the largest in the world and

will allow larger ships to travel carrying more cargo• The navigation locks allow 10,000 ton ships to travel

the river, where before ships carrying only 1,500 tons were limited.

Positives: Power Source• It would supply much needed electrical power for development. • Once operational, the dam will produce the energy of 15 nuclear power plants. • The electricity generated by the Three Gorges Dam will reportedly illuminates half

of China• Its 26 700-megawatt turbine generators have a productions capacity equal to the

energy produced by 18 nuclear plants or the burning of 40 million tons of coal.• Will provide energy to 60 million residents currently without power.• Hydroelectric is cleaner than coal burning and nuclear waste.• Ozone protected from greenhouse gas emissions.• The dam’s total electric generating power will ultimately be 22, 500 megawatts,

enough to power millions of homes and provide a large portion of China’s energy needs.

• The world’s largest hydropower project and most notorious dam. • When complete, the project will generate one ninths of China’s power.• It is the world’s biggest man-made produce of electricity from renewable energy.• Hydropower is the centerpiece of one of China’s praised green initiatives.• Dams are much cleaner producers of electricity.

Positives: Power Source

• The Three Gorges Dam is to be an anchor in a string of hydropower “megabases” planned for the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

• By 2020, China wants to nearly triple its hydroelectric power.

• Hydropower is one of China’s richest and least tapped energy resources.

• Presently, China only uses about ¼ of its hydropower potential.

Positives: Power Source

• To ease its addiction to coal which accounts for 67% of China’s energy supply and pollutes horribly, China wants 15% of the country’s energy consumption to come from renewable resources by 2020.

• Presently, it is about 7.5%.

Positives: Power Source• It is believed if the Three Gorges Dam produced

electricity at full capacity it would prevent the Chinese people from:– Burning more than 50 million tons of coal a year– Producing more than 100 million tons of carbon

dioxide– Producing more than 1.2 to 2 million tons of sulfur

dioxide– Producing more than 10,000 tons of carbon monoxide– All contributing to the air pollution problems in China

Positives: Revenue Generated• Dams are a huge business in China• China has acquired the know-how to build large

hydropower schemes, and has begun exporting similar projects around the world

• Giant utilities that build them are funded with government and private investment money

• When the corporation building the Three Gorges Dam publicly listed in 2003, on the stock market, their share prices surged by 45% and the company raised nearly 1.2 billion dollars in one day

Negatives of Dam

Negatives: Resettlement Issues

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/asian.superpower/three.gorges/

Roughly 70 percent of the country’s 10.2 million "reservoir relocatees" were still living in "extreme poverty” after the

resettlement.

Negatives: Resettlement Issues• China’s highest state body warned that the Three Gorges

Project has “caused some urgent problems in terms of environmental protection, the prevention of geological hazards and the welfare of the relocated communities.”

• Some villagers in Fengjie Country were relocated to a new village site less than a mile away but were not given enough compensation to get new housing

• Ms. Han said “We only have 10,000 yuan or $1300 and with such a small amount of money, I can’t even build a first floor.”

Negative-Resettlement Issues• Originally required 1.3 million people in a 405 square

mile area• Over ten towns will have to be flooded to build the

dam and people will have to move. • The government says 1.3million people, others say

up to 3 million.• As of 2007, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao the dam has

displaced more than 23 million people• 20,000 people have just been relocated for the

second time due to this project– Originally resettled in 1998 to Huangtupo– Relocated again in August 22, 2012

Negatives: Resettlement Issues• Number of Displaced or Resettled People Varies: 1.3 million, 4 million, or

now the total over all the years of 40-80 million • 43% of the people are farmers and there was not enough good farmland to

give to them to compensate for their losses• Flooded 13 cities, 140 towns, and 1, 350 villages• Homes, factories, farms, fisheries, and ancient temples lost now under water• Some of the people are given financial compensation and moving expenses.• Others are given either new farm land or new factory jobs.• Much of the new farm land is barely usable and is located on steep inclines

requiring excess precipitation.• Critique of the resettlement plans is prohibited in the media.


• Most of the promises to provide land to farmers and jobs to displaced city residents have not been met

• When given land, the plots were small and barren• Many have been sent to live in urban slums

without money, jobs, or houses• Another 530,000 people will have to be relocated

by 2020 in order to relieve pressure on the fragile reservoir slopes


• Studies show that the region’s population density is almost twice the national average.

• The resettled farmers are in villages with too many farmers perched on steep slopes and sharing too little land

Negatives: Cost to Taxpayers• Since 1951, the run-off of the Yangtze Basin has

decreased by one-third.• Droughts have prevented the Three Gorges Dam to

generate electricity at full capacity.• Not reaping the benefits form the cost of building

the dam• In 1992, the dam was to cost about 9 billion dollars.• However, this number increased to about 37.2

billion dollars.• Dai Qing, a critic of the project, not estimates that

the final cost will be about 88 billion dollars.

Negatives: Cost to Taxpayers

• Not only is this project supposed to take more than a dozen years to complete, its cost will range in between $17 billion and $100 billion.

• China will spend about 40 billion yuan to build at least 150 sewage treatment plants and 170 urban garbage disposal plants due to the dam

Negatives: Loss of Historical Sites and Treasures

• Money that was to be allotted to underground archaeology has not come through

• Robberies are a problem at there is no security or surveillance of sites

• Artifacts of dubious origins have begun to surface on the market like a Han Dynasty bronze spirit tree that sold for 2 million Euros in 1998

Negatives: Loss of Historical Sites

• Destroyed 1300 archeological sites.• Flooded many historical sites.• Reduced tourism.

Negatives: Landslides

• Number of hazards had risen 70% since water levels in the reservoir reached 175 meters

• This very likely means landslides are becoming a large concern

• Water is added or taken out of the reservoir depending on the season– This has caused the banks to soften, making

landslides very likely

Negative: Landslides

• Landslides killed at least 48 people in 2007 across this area

• Landslides can also wipe out houses very easily

• The shore of the reservoir has already collapsed in nearly 100 places by the end of 2009

Negatives: Landslides• The upward migration of farmers has led to

deforestation that has lead to soil erosion and destabilized hillsides.

• Construction crews are reinforcing crumbling hillsides above the reservoir with concrete

• In the village of Pinaggo, when it rains, the soil starts flooding downhill.

• In Fengjie County, officials have designated more than 800 disaster-prone zone araes

• Several thousands of people have had to be relocated

Negatives: Landslides• In Jianmin Village, the mountain began to buckle as a

landslide swept it• 20 homes were demolished• The people living in those homes five months later were

living in a tent fending off rats and with nothing• To block cold air, they pin down the tent flaps with rocks• They are too poor to buy an apartment in the city or to

build a new home on higher ground• The local government gave the tents to live in and villagers

donated clothes

Negatives: Earthquake Tremors• The Three Gorges Dam sits on two major

earthquake fault lines.• In 2006 over seven months, scientists recorded

822 tremors around the reservoir• Reservoirs are know to have triggered

earthquakes all over the world. • While the dam is built to withstand a strong

earthquake, the houses, schools, and buildings along the river are not and millions are in danger.

Negatives: Earthquake Tremors

• A tremor shook Pinggao like jelly leaving cracks in several farmhouses.

• When the rainfall is heavy, due to the structural weaknesses created by the tremors, the houses sway and the roofs collapse

Negatives: Weather Patterns• Has changed weather patterns• Rainfall has decreased near the damn and

increased in the nearby mountains• Temperatures have dropped in the mountains

by 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit• Attempts to increase the water level 175

meters in the fall of 2009 resulted in drought conditions downstream

• Crops failed and freighters were stranded in mud

Negative: Pollution• The water is going to pollute; the human

waste is not being treated, the industrial waste is not being treated. – Could possibly be an open sewer the length of

Lake Superior– The river will not be able to flush the pollution

down because it will be a still body of water.

Negative: Pollution• In September 2007, government officials admitted

that “if preventive measures are not taken, there could be an environmental collapse.”

• Pollution from industry, agriculture, and households is causing frequent algae blooms in the reservoir.

• The government built dozens of garbage and sewer treatment plants but most of them are not in operation because the local governments do not have the money to operate them.

Negative: Polluted Water• Factories, mines and waste dumps were submerged in this water• Increasing urban growth along the reservoir caused waste water

discharge to double• Waters are brown• Over 265 billion gallons of raw sewage are dumped into the

Yangtze annually. • Currently the river flushes this downstream and out into the

ocean. • Upon completion of the Three Gorges project, the sewage will

back up in the reservoir. • Water flow has slowed down

– Makes its ability to purify itself deteriorate

Negative: Polluted Water

• The city of Chongqing releases nearly one billion tons of untreated wastewater into the Three Gorges reservoir each year because the government did not finish building and running the promised sewage and garbage plants

Negatives: Wildlife• The coastline will be eroded.• The altered ecosystem will further endanger many species.• The river, no longer free flowing, will become very polluted once the toxins

and pollutants are slowly released from the cities.• 14,500 hectares of agricultural land will be lost.• The dam will act as a barrier causing the flow of sediments to slow and

downstream fisheries and agriculture will be deprived of much need nutrients

• Ecological impact – endangered species will be affected: the giant panda, Yangtze dolphin, Chinese alligator, Chinese sturgeon, Chinese tiger, and Siberian crane.

• Interrupted the fish migration• Altered the river’s chemical balance, temperature, and velocity• The dam has driven the Chinese river dolphin to extinction• More species now endangered (Chinese and river sturgeon, and the Chinese

Paddlefish )

Negatives: Wildlife• The dam has driven the famous Chinese River Dolphin to extinction.• Populations of sturgeon, river sturgeon, and Chinese paddlefish have

become endangered.• Commercial fisheries in the Yangtze River and off the river’s mouth in the

East China Sea have declined sharply.• The dam blocks migration of fish and access to spawning grounds• 27% of all of China’s endangered freshwater fish are in the Yangtze River

basin• A 2003 study identified at least six species of fish at high risk of complete

extinction• Another 14 species are endangered • Another 24 species are close to be on the endangered list• Commercial harvest of four species of carp are well below pre-dam levels

Negatives: Silt Issue• Critics claim The Yangtze will add 530 million tons of silt into

the reservoir on average per year and it will soon be useless in preventing floods.

• Because of the buildup of silt load in the reservoir, the Yangtze River now flows faster downstream and is eroding the levees.

• It has reversed the dam’s flood control benefits.• The silt is being withheld from downstream areas.• After the dam was completed, the sediment load at the river’s

mouth dropped form 1/3 its previous level.• Due to this, four square kilometers of coastal wetlands are

being eroded each year.• Seawater is intruding up the Yangtze and destroying arable land

and threatening drinking water supplies.

Negatives: Silt Issue

• Silt accumulation has steadily reduced the capacity of other Chinese dams to store water and reduce electrical generation

• Planners of the Three Gorges Dam estimated that sedimentation could become a problem upstream in the city of Chongqing within 20 years

Negatives Erosion: • The Yangtze River deposits its silt into the Three Gorges

reservoir now it flows faster downstream eroding the levees in the Yangtze Valley.

• The Three Gorges reservoir levels fluctuate between 145 and 175 meters, this destabilizes the slopes of the Yangtze Valley creating a serious risk for landslides and erosion.

• Erosion affects more that half of the reservoir area and 178 kilometers of riverbanks are in jeopardy or collapsing.

Negatives: Political Corruption

• Widely believed that contractors won bids through bribery.

• Many of the materials used in construction are below standards to lower overall costs.

• Head of the Three Gorges Dam Economic Corp. sold jobs in the company, took out loans for the project and disappeared with the money in May 2000.

• Resettlement officials were caught embezzling funds from the Resettlement Program in January 2000.

• 12% of the resettlement budget has been embezzled

Negatives: Political Corruption

• A displaced resident told the Financial Times, “Our lives have been ruined by the dam while the big officials got their fruit and filled their wallet.”

• The Chinese government has had to prosecute hundreds of government officials for corruption and embezzlement.

• 300 government officials have been found guilty

Negatives: Government Corruption and Not Keeping Promises

• China has created stronger environmental protection laws and regulations, however policies lack a clear public participation procedure.

• Fines for violating environmental laws low and not enforced.

• Despite the experience when creating the Three Gorges Project China still wants to increase its hydropower capacity. This could demonstrate disastrous for China’s major rivers the Upper Yangtze, Lancang (Mekong), and the Nu (Salween).

Negative: Government Crackdown on Protests

• 100,000 people protested the Pubugou Dam Project in the Sichuan Province and the riot police were called in and brutally crushed the protest

• The leader of the protest was executed for his role in the death of a policeman.

What would these people think about the Three Gorges Dam?

• Government Official---You represent the interests of the Chinese government with its economic growth and power source issues your main focus.

• Environmentalist---You are concerned about the ecological impact the dam has on China.

• Farmer--- You live near the banks of the Yangtze because you take the water from the river to flood your rice fields.

• Business Owner Specializing in Trade---You own a shop on the banks of the Yangtze. You provide the local village with general goods that people cannot grow or produce themselves. Yours is the only shop in the village.

• Tourism Director---You work with the government and an international travel organization called Trafalgar Tours. You wonder if the dam will be good or bad for tourism.

• Shipping Corporation--- You are the head of a major shipping business in China that handles the transportation of manufactured goods produced in China within the country and abroad.

Three Gorges Dam on Yangtze River

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