Case Study on The Three Gorges Dam in China

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Geography Coursework

The Three Gorges Dam

長江三峽大壩

Chris Stanley 11IRW

      Candidate Number 2527

25th January 2007

Introduction

The Three Gorges Dam project, presently being built on the Chinese  River Yangtze and it is know to be the world’s largest dam and one of the most controversial public works of modern times. The proposed 2.3km long by 185m tall, concrete hydroelectric dam is to cross the river around 400km west of the city of Wuhan. The dam will create a huge reservoir behind it 660km long stretching within the three gorges behind it and allow for the regulation of water west of the Dam.  The Three Gorges Project is speculated to be completed by 2008, one year ahead of previous predicted schedule.

                                                                                   Map of the River Yangtze

History

Damming the Yangtze River was first proposed in 1919 by the founder of the Republic of China in order to protect the river communities from the erratic flooding caused by the river that caused a huge amount of destruction and death; however the poor economic state of the country at the time delayed the process. A later communist leader Mao Zedong, in office from 1945-1976, was known to be the most prominent supporter of the project, although it was not until 1993 when the river was diverted and 1994 when construction began. Over the last 50 years, the economy of china has increased vastly in strength. Since 1952, the GDP has increased by around 280 times mainly due to the market based reforms since 1978 which include the privatisation of farming and entrance to the World Trade Organisation. With an increasing economic strength, the Chinese Communist government can afford huge public works such as the Three Gorges dam which they believe will benefit the economy further in the future.  Presently (2007) the structure of the dam is said to be completed although it will not be fully operational until 2008 when it will be able to generate electricity at full capacity.

The River Yangtze

The River Yangtze is the world’s third largest river which flows for a total of 6,211km from the Tibet in the West through China and ends in the East where it branches of as a delta into The Pacific Ocean. It has a drainage area that is 1.8 million square kilometres which is around 18% of Chinese Territory. Whilst transporting fertile silt the river often floods and causes much devastation due to flooding due to an influx in rain. Before the dam was built, the river was relied on heavily for fishing, transport and sustaining fertility of farmland among many other things. The river is said to support 230 million Chinese citizens and affect one in ten people on Earth in some way or another.

What Are the Effects of the Three Gorges Dam?

The construction of The Three Gorges Dam has sparked up some serious debate about the social and environmental costs of the project. Most of the issues have two sides to them, some benefiting different aspects and that do not.

Regulation of Water

        The two main rives of China often flood due to the vast, seasonal summer rains of China often causing disastrous effects. The Yangtze floods of 1998 were due to torrential rain in July caused water levels to rise downstream on the river at levels of up to 1.25m above danger level, threatening cities such as Wuhan. By the end of August the floods had killed in excess of 2,000 people, swept away around 3 million houses and destroyed 9 million hectares of crops. This disastrous flood was said to have affected one fifth of the Chinese population.

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According to a study on Chinese water management by the Tibet Justice Organisation, water shortages in China are such that over 60 million people do not get enough water for their daily needs. Figures show that in 1995, 400 of 595 Chinese cities had savvier water shortages and presently one in three rural inhabitants don’t have access to clean water whilst in the cities such as Beijing there is still a mere individual allowance of 66,000 gallons per year. 11.9% of the Chinese economy relies on agriculture, much of which is for growing rice for export which requires huge amounts ...

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