To what extent has the Three Gorges Dam project, in China, been a success?

The dam holds back the water in case of floods and can reduce the outflow by 15,000 m3/s and has a flood control capacity of 22.15 billion cubic meters. Thus limiting greatly the risk of flooding. Also the dam can supply extra water downstream in the dry season. The large reservoir has changed the weather in the area, insuring a longer and more humid growing season. Although the dam is now protecting people in Wuhan and more people downstream the large reservoir meant that 1.3 million people were forced to relocate and had to abandon their terrains and their houses, which lay on some of the most fertile land of China.

The maximum energy produced by the dam is equal to 18,200Mw, and it gives out 84.6 billion kilowatt hours of clean energy annually, around 3% of China’s power demand. This is well under the previous objective to provide 10% of China’s need for power, a goal that has been failed because of the raise of power need in China. The power station can only produce the maximum energy capacity when the reservoir is filled up to 175m, but the sheer weight of the water has been causing landslides and seismic activities and can block the port of Chongqin when the water gets too high.

Ultimately the dam now lets 10000 tonnes ships reach Chongqin instead of the 1500 tonnes ships that could before the dam. This has gretly increased the economy of the area as the freight capacity was about 18.0 million tonnes per year. The freight capacity of the river increased six times and the cost of shipping was reduced by 25%. The total capacity of the ship locks is expected to reach 100 million tonnes per year.

The Chinese government decided and approved to build the dam in 1992 and it finished building in 2006, while the last part, the ship-lift is expected to be completed by 2014. The goals of this dam were to produce 10% of China’s power need and to ultimately protect people downstream from a one in ten thousand year flood. The other two objectives as previously stated, were to increase the navigability of the river and increase tourism in the area.

The estimates for the cost of the dam vary greatly, with the US China embassy stating it cost around 28 billion dollars, making it the tenth most expensive energy project ever. It is expected to pay back in about 10 years, which make the cost seem quite reasonable if this goal is met. Other problems have aroused as the dam has affected the fauna in the river, such as the Chinese river dolphin and the Yangtze sturgeon, on the verge of extinction. Another problem is the accumulation of silt and waste behind the dam, which might cause it to block up and be destroyed. There is also a risk of the dam being destroyed by either the sheer weight of the water or by terrorist attacks. The designers in the beginning have overlooked most of these problems but now they will have to find solutions to them.

Ultimately I think that the Chinese government has met the goals and the three gorges dam reflects this greatly resulting in the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. The dam can now let much bigger ships reach the upper part of the Yangtze and help the economy of China grow. The goals were actually very challenging to meet and the work that has been done on the dam have proved that people can build large and futuristic projects to meet all the demands of the modern society. In the case of the Three Gorges dam I think that the result has not been neither a success nor a failure, as it appears to me that the problems have been overlooked and the solutions are yet to be found. Overall the large energy production and the increase in the areas economy have helped China a great lot and this makes me think that I think that if the large problems that the builders have to face are solved the dam can turn out to have been one of the greatest projects of mankind, and even one of the most successful.

Bibliography:

Figure 1: "002C." The Contra Costa Demonstrator. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2013. <http://www.ccdemo.info/landabee/ChinaTripSlideShows/512x384/16SS-3GorgesDam/slides/002ChinaMapDams2.html>.

Figure 2: "Three Gorges Dam Project (TGDP): China’s biggest project since the Great Wall | Industry Tap." Industry Tap | Tap Into News. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2013. <http://www.industrytap.com/three-gorges-dam-project-tgdp-chinas-biggest-project-since-the-great-wall/>.

Figure 3: "Three Gorges Dam, Yangtze River Cruise in China." China tours, China travel agency, China tour operator, Yangtze river cruise. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2013. <http://www.chinaodysseytours.com/yangtze>

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