The Three Gorges Dam Project

From Lonely Planet, China.  Page 564:

When completed in about 2009, the Three Gorges Dam will be the world's largest water storage reservoir.  A cherished vision since the early years of Republican China, long before the communists came to power, the dam proposal was finally given the go-ahead by the current government only in 1992, and one of its staunchest supporters from the beginning was Li Peng.  This colossal project involves the construction of a 2km, 185m high dam wall across the Cháng Jiang (Yangtze River) at Sanouping, 38km upriver from the existing Gezhou Dam.  The project aims to supply electricity, to improve the river's navigability and to protect against flooding.  If all goes according to schedule, the gap will have closed by now, although the water level is not expected to rise significantly for a few more years.

The Three Gorges Dam is a cornerstone in government efforts to channel economic growth from the dynamic coastal provinces toward the more 'backward' Chinese hinterland.  The Dam's hydro-electric project - reckoned to equal almost on-fifth of China's current generating capacity - is intended to to power the continuing industrialization of the upper Cháng Jiang Basin.

Navigation upriver from Yichang has always been hindered by unfavorable conditions for shipping.  Although passing the dam itself will be an inconvenience - the Three Gorges Dam will have 3 passage locks compared with just one lock on the Gezhou Dam - the navigability of the upper Cháng Jiang will be drastically improved by the widening of shipping lanes and the creation of a more constant water level within the new lake.  Inundation will eliminate strong river currents, and obstacles dangerous to navigation such as sand bars and submerged rocks will disappear completely.

At least as important will be the dam's role in flood control.  The Cháng Jiang is prone to repeated flooding, which has often resulted in great loss of life.  Several catastrophic floods have occurred this century, in 1931, 1935, 1954, and more recently in 1991, when more than 2000 people are believed to have perished.

However, the massive scale of the Three Gorges Dam project has caused disquiet among environmentalists and economists, arousing some of the most outspoken criticism of government policy since 1989.  Protests also center on what will be a significant loss of cultural artifacts and important sites marking various periods of China's cultural history.  Despite an ambitious plan of relocation and preservation, time is running out and the technocrats in charge of the dam project have not given this issue the attention it deserves.

The social and environmental implications of the dam, which will create a fast 550-km-long lake stretching deep into Sichuan, are profound indeed.  When the back-waters build up behind the dam wall, the great inland port of Chóngqing will become the world's first metropolis situated on the banks of a major artificial lake.

As estimated two million people living in the inundated areas will need to be relocated.  Some destruction of the natural and scenic splendor of the Three Gorges is unavoidable.  Boat trips of the Three Gorges are running overtime as local and foreign tourists rush to see one of China's most famous sights before the concrete slabs begin to spell the demise of a great river.

Construction of the dam will be enormously expensive, with a final cost probably in the vicinity of US$20 billion.  Economists both in China and abroad have warned that it may be imprudent for the government to concentrate such investment into one single project.

Fears about the dam project were also heightened when information was released about two dams that collapsed in Henan in 1975.  After 20 years as a state secret, it is now apparent that as many as 230,000 people died in the catastrophe.  Planners insist that the Three Gorges Dam will be constructed according to safety regulations that would make a similar disaster impossible - still, the collapse of the walls holding back the world's largest storage reservoir in one of the world's most densely populated area is a thought that must give even the most gung-ho supporters of the Three Gorges project nightmares.