Three Gorges Dam: Its Background and Relevance

This report examines the lead farce dekameter tramp and its impacts on the environment, the plenty it exit effect and measures that stick out be taken as an alternative to the obstruct. I will discuss the Chinese disposals reasoning for constructing the dam up and the negative aspects of such a body structure. Then I will exempt the much(prenominal) environmentally friendly and logical alternatives. The concept of the Three oversupply dam is over 75 years old, dating back to when it was beginning proposed by the nationalist leader Sun Yat-Sen, in 1919.The dam was a dream of communist leader Mao Zedong, who felt it would be a potent symbol of Chinas self-sufficiency and ability to develop without western aid. The sound out media has reported barely the rosy side of the Three Gorges project, faceing it as a indicantful symbol of a late, prosperous China. Outgoing Premier Li Peng said the Three Gorges Dam would demonstrate to the world that the Chinese generalwealt h have the ability to build the swelledgest and most beneficial irrigation and hydro-electric project in the world.The Three Gorges refers to a 120-mile stretch of limestone cliffs along the stop number reaches of the Yangzi River where the body of water drops precipitously through the Qutang, Wu, and Xiling gorges. The region is linked to folklore and important historical events, and its dish has inspired Chinese painters and classical poets such as Li Bai for centuries. The dam, which will be 1. 3 miles long and 610 feet high, is expected to be completed by 2009.It will create a 385 mile-long reservoir stretching back up the river that will totally engulf the Three Gorges, as well as 115,000 acres of rich farmland, thirteen cities, hundreds of villages, and countless historic temples and archaeological sites. amidst 1. 4 and 1. 9 meg citizenry will need to be resettled. The proponents of the dam claim that the introduction of such a large measuring rod of clean hydroelectr ic power into Chinas rapidly expanding economy will call up a significant decrease in the emission of fossil raise pollution.First, it will generate 18000 megawatts of electricity, which would reduce the countrys reliance on scorch by one tenth. Hence reducing Chinas overall babys room suckes. Second, it will observe the periodical flowageing of the Yangzi, which has already claimed the lives of half a trillion this light speed alone. The dam is expected to cut incidents of serious flood from once in 10 years to once in 100 years. At present 15 million lives ar at stake as the river rises higher(prenominal) above the surrounding land because of sediment deposits on the riverbed, while dikes can no longer be raised safely.Third, it will make the upper part of the Yangzi more navigable, raising the rivers navigable tonnage by a big margin. Improved navigability would allow ocean-going freighters to penetrate the depths of Chinas remote Southwest, livery untold needed sco tch development and prosperity to the region. The project is likewise expected to develop reservoir fisheries, stimulate tourism in and somewhat the reservoir, improve water quality shovel instream, protect the lake beas downstream, and enable south-to-north water modify sometime in the next century. 4. 0 Dilemmas surrounding dam constructionThere ar many problems entangled with the construction of such a dam, two of which stand out. First, the fact that so many civilians have to be moved against their will. 13 cities, 140 towns, more than 1600 villages, and 300 factories will be submerged, and nearly 1. 5 million people relocated. Second, the effects that the rise in level of river will have on the environment. This includes the destruction of habitats for at least four indigenous species in the area. According to official figures, 10. 2 million people have been relocated for the construction of dams in the past in China.In each case, there have been economic or policy-maki ng problems that has often led to intimidation and sometimes violence to force the people to resettle. This is referable to peoples reluctance to leave their homes, which can be attri unlessed to poor formulation on the governments part. The number of people to be resettled in the Three Gorges dam project has been estimated to range between 700,000 to 1. 98 million. Such wavering in figures is due to the fact that it depends on whether the information was gathered by the dams supporters or critics. There has been a large amount of local contrary to the dam.Their opposition is mainly based on the poor record of Chinas Ministry of water Resources, which includes the collapse of 62 dams in the past due to poor design. However, since the Chinese government never ack this instantledged such disasters in the past, it could non be brought up in hearings on the Three Gorge project. People in the effected area who have in the past organised against the dam were arrested and sentenced t o prison for counter-revolution and the police presence in the area has since been increased. The local officials are not quite helping ease the situation.The distribution of compensation notes by local authorities (US$1300 per person) offered to people displaced by the dam has been spoil by corruption. 105 local party officials involved in the project have been arrested already. Almost half of the projects resettlers are farmers. But since there is an misfortunate amount of farmland left to be shared, the officials have planned for abject the resettlers into industrial jobs. This is quite an impossible task considering that the farmers have been farming in their area for generations and have absolutely no expertise in industrial work.It is a great concern that the construction of the dam will impression in the destruction of the natural habitats of many of Chinas indigenous wildlife species. This includes the Chinese alligator, the gabardine crane, the river dolphin and the p rehistoric Chinese sturgeon, a fish unique to Yangzi waters. Experts chasten that, by forever changing the hydrology of the river for thousands of miles, the dam will destroy mercenary fish stocks and deprive the complex floodplain agricultural systems of the water and clog up they need.Hence threatening the livelihoods of 75 million people who live on fishing or farming along the Yangzis bank. Even if the 75 million people find another source to live on, there is up to now another problem to be solved toxic pollution. The factories along the Yangzi river are so polluting that over 200 paper mills and tanneries have already been closed down around the Three Gorges dam site to get up environmental protection. The contamination of the river by the toxic chemicals may increase due to the 1600 factories in the area that are not cleaned up and moved earlier the waters begin to rise.China is the worlds second leading producer of greenhouse gases. If Chinas current growth rates cont inue, it will need to develop an special 17,000 megawatts of energy per year for the next decade. And if coal is used to generate this energy, the environmental impacts could be disastrous. Whether or not the dam is constructed, hydropower will only written report for no more than 20% of Chinas electricity generated by year 2010. This shows that coal will be used even more widely than it is now, to fill up energy needfully.Hence the dam will not have much impact on helping meet energy needs. China needs to find a cleaner, more efficient way of creating power. The Three Gorge reservoir is currently designed to hold 20 billion cubic meters at the flood level. But this capacity is only equivalent to 4% of the total run off water in the region. It is obvious from common sense that this capacity could not hold back flood waters enough to reduce significantly the flood risk at the note reaches. Another problem is the fact that the Yangzi carries a large amount of clog up. This silt can be carried all the way to the dam and a big mud pond could result. There is no such technology available to distract or collect the silt at the dam. From an ecological point of view, the dam will be clogged by the large silt deposits, in the Yangzi, and will to a fault trap much of the pollutants that normally would be water-washed out to the ocean.Along the Yangzi, about 80 percent of the cities do not have sewage systems, and it is cheaper to dump the waste in the river instead of a sewage treatment plant. Burial grounds in both Wushan and Fengjie counties, Sichuan are known to have been dynamited to make way for scientific slams in levy of the dam project. One thousand tombs dating between the Han and Ming periods (206 BC to AD 1644) were also blasted away. The problem lies with lack of funding. The initial budget (US$250 million) for excavation and preservation was reduced to US$37. 5 million.Only a minor(ip) amount of this sum has been distributed to local authorities because government officials have been uneffective to decide which agency should administer the funds. The Three Gorges dam will be the most expensive single construction project in history. The Chinese leaders are so determined to build the dam, that they havent considered whether it is economically viable. In 1992 the official cost of the dam was set to US$11 billion. Estimates now exceed US$75 billion. This could slow down Chinas recent economic boom. The dam project is heavily funded by foreign export agencies.If people in foreign countries were to stop foreign investors and government organisations which support the project, the Chinese officials would have no choice but to reconsider their plans. But since it is not in the foreign investors best interest monetarily, they have kept reenforcement the Chinese government. Hydrological experts have argued that effective flood management includes dyking, flood proofing, flood warning systems, diversion areas, and development restr ictions in floodplain and designated diversion areas and that dams are not always the answer.The Chinese officials mentality is that the biggest structure is the best structure, but what they must realize is that it does not mean the best structure. That Chinese hydropower could be produced on a number of tributaries that flow into the Yangzi. This procedure has been proven by scientific examples that prove that fracture dams will produce more power and last longer then one main dam. Sedimentation of separate dams would be less and these dams would be able to preserve Chinas cultural history.The great amount of smaller dams would cause less soil erosion and more power for a much lower cost. It would be able to grapple with Chinas booming industrial sectors and preserve the aquatic life. The construction of these smaller dams could also mean that it would lesson the amount of people to be resettled, and would save the Chinese government billions of dollars. However, the smaller da ms would not allow large transportation of cargo down the river.Based on a recent study by fall in States and Chinese energy research institutes, which compared conventional sources with advanced generating technologies, cleaner alternatives, such as smaller gas turbines or cogeneration plants were found to be more economical for power generation than big hydro dams. combine cycle gas turbines could provide power with lower capital costs and greater dependability than the Three Gorges dam and with far fewer emissions than conventional coal plants. Combined cycle plants are commonly fuelled with natural gas, which burns more soundly than solid or liquid fuels.And unlike coal, it contains no heavy metals or sulfur emissions that cause acid rain. Combined cycle plants can be installed and generating power reliably within nine months to two or third years for larger units. Three Gorges dam is scheduled to take 17 years. In addition energy specialists argue, that switching from coal to gas, and using new technology of combined cycle gas turbines or cogeneration, would create greater environmental benefits than the Three Gorges dam by a 60% reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Whereas the Three Gorges dam would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by only 5%.