Three Gorges Dam Impacts

Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydropower in the world, has claimed to be a project that gives “hope” to the people in China. Located on the Yangtze River, the third longest river in the world, the Three Gorges Dam is the symbol of China’s technology and economic progress. For years, the government has claimed that it could benefit people’s living quality by improving the navigation on Yangtze River, providing hydroelectric power, and improving flood control. But does it true? Do the people in China get any benefit from this project? This paper will discuss about the environmental impact, the social consequence, and the current status of Government’s plans toward the Three Gorges Dam.

Flood control is the main reason for building the Three Gorges Dam. Since Han Dynasty (300BC), flood has been killed millions of lives, and destroyed millions of acres of farmland and homes every ten years. Billions of money has been spent on recovering the damage. The Three Gorges Dam is meant to be responsible for controlling the flood by changing the water height of the reservoir upstream from the dam according to season. It was planned to allow the water level to reach 185 meters above the sea level during the dry season, from November to April, and reduce to 135 meters during flooding months in order to attempt to contain flood waters. ("Biggest flood control,")

Energy production is the second major reason for the construction of Three Gorges Dam. China’s demand of energy has been increasing rapidly that the Government have to find ways to fulfill the huge demand. The Three Gorges Dam becomes one of the solutions in meeting the needs. According to China Three Gorges Corporation, the dam contains twenty-six turbines, each generating 700MW, thus ...

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...s very inefficient. Besides hydroelectricity, China has a lot of potential in other alternative energy, like wind energy and solar power. The investment of these alternative energy could be cheaper and faster compare with the large dam. According to the China Academy of Meteorological Sciences, the potential of wind energy is massive, with 235 GW of practical onshore wind power potential and 750GW offshore. For the solar power, China is already a global manufacturer of PV panels which makes it likely to have a large market for grid-tied solar in the future. ("Three gorges dam:," 2008). The Chinese government’s goal is to get 15% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020. With the strong financial and political power of China government, China could become the world leader of energy revolution while protecting the environment and human rights at the same time.