Water storage project: The Three Gorges Project
Introduction
Started in 1997, finished in 2009
Mainly to generate electricity and to control flooding
Location: middle of China and on its longest river, the Yangtze
185 m high and almost 2 km wide
The reservoir of water that has built up behind the dam is nearly 600 km long
Advantages:
The Three Gorges Dam has become a tourist attraction ‣ The dam produces clean renewable energy- HEP → account for 10% of China’s present demand for electricity
The amount of flooding has reduced downstream of the dam
Water is stored behind the dam that can be used for drinking, irrigation
The dam created a lot of jobs during building and there are now permanent jobs operating and maintaining the dam
Disadvantages:
Over 1 million people had to be relocated as the reservoir flooded
Cities, towns and villages have been drowned
The Yangtze freshwater dolphin has become extinct, mainly due to increased river traffic and pollution
The sturgeon and alligator are severely threatened because of pollution and disruption to breeding patterns
The dam is built near a fault line → vulnerable to earthquakes
Many archaeological sites were inundated
Silt is trapped behind the dam → farmland downstream of the dam become less fertile as less alluvium is deposited
Water quality is reducing as huge amounts of human and industrial waste are trapped behind the dam