China: cracks in the Three Gorges Dam, so 300,000 people can wave goodbye to their homes

China: cracks in the Three Gorges Dam, so 300,000 people can wave goodbye to their homes

blo gs.telegraph.co.uk

In China, cracks are appearing – in the neighbourhood of the massive Three Gorges Dam, the country’s great prestige project, and also in the Great Internet Firewall of China, enabling the ominous news to leak out. Three years ago stories were already emerging in the Chinese media about landslides, ecological deterioration and accumulation of algae further down the river. And less and less effort seems to be made to plug the leaks.
Recent media reports tell of a series of landslips, minor earthquakes and cracks appearing in roads and buildings along the central section of the Yangtse, betw

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is scary. If the Three Gorges Dam fails, there's gonna be EPIC devastation... probably a few million dead, tens of millions homeless and hundreds of billions in damage.

This could be the worst human catastrophe in history... yes worse than the oil spill.

In other news, it's not like nobody saw this coming. Building a dam on a seismically active fault, really? And in any war with China, any intelligent adversary would launch a missile directly on that dam...

But this article ain't about a crack in the dam itself, but more in the society and ecological environment around it... The Yangtze is one of the most polluted river in the world...

blo gs.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 7-6-2010 by Vitchilo]

I hope this is simply an over-exaggeration by the journalist involved.

I hope this is just fear-mongering to get us to be scared for something else.

If not, then it is just another time bomb ticking away and those responsible already have their bags packed.


However, we should try not to think too hard about this horrible potential, the more we feed the negativity, the more we increase its power and in-turn increase the likelihood of such an event occurring.

Say a prayer, if your religious, or just send loving energy if you're not. Do not doom and gloom over this, battle the potential disaster with positivity.

Sounds strange to some but it is affective.

looks like mother nature is fighting back.

Second line.

Didn't crack appear in the 3 Gorges dam in 2001?

I'll see if I can dig up the link...

Edit to add:

Here is the link from 2002.. (I was a year out)

news.bbc.co.uk...

the 2002 crack where due to shoddy workman ship? so perhaps that is the actual case here?

[edit on 7/6/10 by thoughtsfull]

IMO this is not so much about physical cracks in a damn...

It's more to do with the cracks in society, the mega rich cutting corners in order to make even more profit. It's about keeping the poor poor and in place (a place of eternal work and debt).

The cracks that are appearing are showing up everywhere.

BP's oil spill event, the eternally pot holed roads of the UK, the US infrastructure beginning to collapse.. heck, even Dubai can't afford to keep all its projects on the go and they're in the middle of building an extension to their main international airport.

We are going to see many, many more cracks revealing themselves and I just wonder how many millions will have to die or suffer at the hands of the rich, profit making swine in order for everyone to wake up and stop the rot.

If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well...

Mother natures way of population control

Holy SH** that's pretty damn bad tbh..

things can only get betterrrrrrrrrr... lol

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Mother Earth seems to be living up to that.

Havent got a link .. but initial investigations point to one of the contractors using inferior materials there was an apartment complex built by the same contractor that collapsed awhile back luckily nobody had moved in yet as it had just been completed. Sadly its been common practice to cut corners by using inferior materials, putting in less rebar among other things...

China's way of population control.

Originally posted by srsen
However, we should try not to think too hard about this horrible potential, the more we feed the negativity, the more we increase its power and in-turn increase the likelihood of such an event occurring.

Say a prayer, if your religious, or just send loving energy if you're not. Do not doom and gloom over this, battle the potential disaster with positivity.

Sounds strange to some but it is affective.

Well it doesn't sound strange if you had made that comment about something like the economy, then it would be true. The economy is subject to our negative thoughts. The more negatively we think about the economy, the more we tighten up our spending, and then the result is, we have made the economy worse with our negative thinking which made us spend less, which really DID make the economy worse. Then we see facts showing it's worse and it's a vicious cycle. So that idea has merit in some situations like the economy.

But I'm sorry to be the one to tell you that the idea that works so well with the economy has no effect on dams. Other things might affect the dam, like whether there's an earthquake for example, but whether we think positively or negatively won't have any effect on that sorry to say.

Regarding the cracks, I wouldn't be surprised if the Hoover dam has cracks in it but that doesn't mean it's going to fail.

Concrete

All concrete structures will crack to some extent, due to shrinkage and tension.

It depends on how serious the cracks are and it takes qualified engineers to assess the damage potential, so it's difficult for us to speculate without all the facts.

[edit on 7-6-2010 by Arbitrageur]

Good grief.

Either we, or some force in universe, seems determined to reduce the human population on the planet.

Some days should be free of news...

I think it's time for a scotch.

That was such a big deal when it went up, the relocating aside, it was like a goodbye to the landscape: everything you were shown was said to be being shown for the last time. The article gives an impression of erosion of order that was unanticipated, or that only a dictator, or even a committee, would have ignored.

The article makes no mention of the infrastructure of the damn itself needing repairs, or demolition. If the dam is intact I suspect they'll use it until it fails, or doesn't, despite environmental repercussions.

In relation to the dams problems, its not that China didn't know there would be landslides and earthquakes, they did. True they used a lower grade of concret but that in itself was not much of a concern. Where the problem arose is that they under estimated the amount and size. They calculated around 14 minor slides and a couple very minor quakes. However they have experenced close to100 slides with the majority being major along with quakes occuring almost daily. Several of which are 6+ in magnitude.

China has since been trying to reduce the amount of water contained but are having little success. As might be expected, they are worried. So it comes to the point of not IF it will fail but WHEN? The cracks were repaired in 2002 but the repair failed and the cracks widened. The problem with the dam was reported here in China. Its not fear mongering its a fact. BTW if you think the locals in the area would have a problem, Shanghai is in the path.

[edit on 6/7/2010 by pstrron]

Well,This whole project even if the structure were not to collapse is a ecological disaster of the highest magnitude.

Of course none of the green eco-freaks never raised a concern.

They all took Chinese money to look the other way.

Anytime you stop billions of gallons of flowing water and contain it behind a structure such has been done here,somewhere in the world something has to give.

Nobody has related all the earthquakes to this structure because people are ignorant.

The term"earth in a balance"actually means something.

And not a book Al Gore had someone else write.

I think it was a fairly impossible engineering task to begin with. It's too massive, any defects in the construction, design or even repairs will just lead to a domino effect. You have to get everything perfect with a project like this... I don't think any nation could have pulled it off. Hopefully they can repair it or at least get enough warning to prevent a horrible disaster.

The dam has come up in a few threads but mostly its value as a military target.

If there was shoddy quality controll during the dam project esp in terms of the concrete then they have a massive problem. Lets face it, Made In China is more of a warning lable these days.

The dam and the massive amount of water it hold back protects the large majority of the thier airable land. If it lets go, its an instant tragedy in human terms and the devestation that ensues will result in a massive famine that would take a determined effort fo the world to rpevent.

Well, if that dam is breached it will be a mega disaster, and millions of people could be killed? The mighty Yangtze is about to show the Chinese people its wrath as it has for thousands of years. It is a shame, because it is truly a modern marvel, but apparently designed with loose ends as some of you have pointed out? Still, it is supposed to offer much needed electricity, offset China's pollution problems as often criticized about by the west, and drastically curb the disasters caused by the river swelling its banks during China's rainy season.

Rolling on A River

As with all massive engineering undertakings, the 180-billion yuan ($26.3 billion) Three Gorges Dam project has been highly contentious, and its costs and benefits continue to be debated. Among the pluses are flood control, improved ship navigation and clean hydroelectric power generation. Among the minuses are obligatory human resettlements, increased siltation, the loss of archeological and cultural sites and some ecological and environmental damage.

So, it boils down to pros and cons. Is it in everyone's best interests, especially the people of China if nothing was done to curb the disastrous flooding brought by Yangtze that has killed millions, or break a few eggs in an attempt to make an omelet and possibly get a few other incentives along the way by such an undertaking? Here is a good risk assessment by civil engineer about the potential problems if the dam fails in any way. It is a good read, because it tells of the real problems through the eyes of an engineer.

Dam Safety Analysis

Here is another good risk assessment by an ATS member questioningall about the potential for catastrophe associated with this dam, and offers a ton of good facts.

Three Gorges Dam in China–Largest in World – Serious Problems? Affects the Whole Earth

We have to hope this dam remains structural sound and if there are problems they are addressed as expeditiously as possible. If not, many will be displaced and killed if the dam is breached either by an act of terrorism or a natural phenomenon. As it stands now, the jury is still out on whether this dam is indeed an asset or a scourge? We will just have to wait and see?

[Edit: Added another source.]


[edit on 7-6-2010 by Jakes51]

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
But I'm sorry to be the one to tell you that the idea that works so well with the economy has no effect on dams. Other things might affect the dam, like whether there's an earthquake for example, but whether we think positively or negatively won't have any effect on that sorry to say.

Probably easier to just agree to disagree on this one but i'll write a response considering you took the time to write me one

I understand what you are saying, and from the perspective you are saying it from, you are right.

My perspective however is coming from a 'deeper' place, if you will. It is my belief that we control our destiny/reality. It's simple as that.

If, as a collective, we all focus on this dam and think about when its going to break and picture the devastation and imagine the horror then unknowingly we start to create exactly that which we focus on.

It's a belief system thing, not a literal thing.

Anyway this is how i see it, I appreciate your perspective though. Hopefully we are both kept happy and there is no dam disaster