China Dam 'Catastrophe' Warning

China Dam 'Catastrophe' Warning

news.bbc.co.uk

China's Three Gorges Dam could trigger an environmental catastrophe unless emerging problems are treated urgently, senior officials have warned.

The dam's head of construction, Wang Xiaofeng, said ecological problems like soil erosion, landslides and water pollution could not be ignored.

In some areas ill-judged development was making things worse, he said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

When this dam was first going up I knew that the environmental impact would be unmeasurable, not to mention all of the displaced individuals, towns, cities that had to be moved during it's construction.

I am not sure how many of you know about this dam, but it is the largest dam ever being constructed in China. I know of a few really good documentaries that aired on the massive undertaking and what the short term implications were, but not very much was said about long term implications.

This is frightening news from one of their top guy's on the project.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 26-9-2007 by Realtruth]

Wow. Big dam. Do you have any idea how much concrete they will end up useing or how much it will weigh when it is finally completed?

I saw a TV show that said the dam and the water behind it was so heavy that it caused small earthquakes in the area.

reply to post by BluePillOrRedPill


The dam's near enough finished & has been generating electricity since 2003, although the final generator only fired up in October 2008.

Wiki suggests 35,600,000 cu yards of concrete & 463,000 tonnes of steel were used for its construction. Impressive stuff, unless you're a displaced local of course.

BBC have some interesting pictures, I've attached the wiki link for you too.

BBC
Wiki - Three Gorges Dam

I've only just realised Realtruth's post is from 2007. How did you manage to find it ?

Ok, so the original article is from 2007. The Dam, with the exception of the ship lift, is finished and operating at roughly 80% capacity (6 more generators to install). It generated 80 Terrawatt hours in 2008. The reforestation efforts that came online in 2008 are continuing - which is important for the landslide issue - and the wastewater treatment plant construction program is ongoing, with 50 as of 2007.

Sounds to me like they listened to the guy, and they're trying to make it work.