Monday, August 8, 2016

Four Benefits of Three Gorges Dam : Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

(Recovered and Reloaded)

Four Benefits of Three Gorges Dam
Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Metro India (20-06-2016)

          The Chinese government envisaged four goals for the Three Gorges Dam project-flood control, power generation, navigation and tourism.

         Dam building is one of the most important causes for development related displacement. According to Government of India records, during the last fifty years, some 3,300 big dams have been constructed in India. Many of them have led to large-scale eviction of vulnerable groups. For the Sardar Sarovar Dam more than 4 Lakhs people were affected and Narmada Valley Development Project affected much more than this. Tehri project in Uttarakhand established in 1979, affected more than a Lakh of people. Barring a few exceptions, most projects did not have a clear-cut resettlement plan. Resettlement was undertaken on a case-to-case basis. To mention a few, there were projects like the Nagarjunasagar, Hirakud, Tungabhadra and Mayurakshi dams did offer resettlement in the form of house sites to the displaced but leading to long standing litigations. The land acquisition procedure has however become a complex one, prohibiting the payment of fair compensation to project ousters.

            An interesting example is that of Three Gorges Dam in China. The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydropower project. The massive project set a record in terms of displacing twelve Lakh people and flooding 13 cities, 140 towns, 1,350 villages as well as in its reservoir length of more than 600 kilometers. It is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. It is located in the middle of the three gorges on the Yangtze River, the third longest in the world, in the Hubei Province of China. It is 3,937 miles long with an annual discharge of 960 billion cubic meters of water into the East China Sea. Through the Three Gorges Project, China has acquired the know-how to build large hydropower schemes, and has begun exporting similar projects around the world. The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity (22,500 MW). In 2014 the dam generated 98.8 TWh of electricity.

            A large dam across the Yangtze River was originally envisioned by Sun Yat-sen in the International Development of China, in 1919. It was his vision to harness the power of the Yangtze River by a dam to further economic development in China, using the benefits of hydroelectric power. In 1932, the Nationalist government, led by Chiang Kai-shek, began preliminary work on plans in the Three Gorges. In 1939, Japanese military forces occupied Yichang and surveyed the area. A design, the Otani plan, was completed for the dam in anticipation of a Japanese victory over China. It however did not happen.

After the 1949 Communist takeover, Mao Zedong supported the project. After the 1954 Yangtze River Floods, in 1956, Mao Zedong authored a poem titled "Swimming", about his fascination with a dam on the Yangtze River. In 1958, after the Hundred Flowers Campaign, some engineers who spoke out against the project were imprisoned. During the 1980s, the idea of a dam reemerged. The project was approved by the Chinese government in 1992. However, construction didn’t begin until 1994.


Construction started on December 14, 1994. The dam that was originally expected to be fully operational in 2009 was delayed and full operation could take place sometime in May 2012. The ship lift was completed in 2015. The $25 billion project was internationally funded by companies, export credit agencies, and banks from Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden, and Brazil.

The Chinese Government envisaged four goals for the Three Gorges Dam project namely Flood Control, Power Generation, Navigation and Tourism. As the dam has the capacity to reduce the impacts of flooding since it will have a flood control capacity of 22.15 billion cubic meters. The earlier experience of killing thousands of people and causing millions of dollars in damages was permanently done away with the construction of the dam. The use of hydroelectric turbine generators reduces China’s dependency on coal, a hydro carbon that produces greenhouse gases. The Three Gorges Dam is expected to produce about 84.6 billion kilowatt hours of clean energy annually. The presence of the dam, the reservoir, and the ship locks allows large ships to travel up and downstream. Ships will be able to transport goods all the way to the sea at Shanghai. Since the Three Gorges Dam Project is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, it is expected to be popular among tourists visiting China.

            The dam consists of three parts: the dam itself, the ship locks, and the ship lift- a large wind-driven or engine-powered vessel designed to carry passengers or cargo over water, especially across the ocean. The dam is 600 feet high and 1.3 miles across. It consists of a center spillway, to let water over the dam, and each side houses the hydroelectric turbine generators, twenty-six in all. The water behind the dam is expected to reach a final height of 525 ft. The length of the forming reservoir will be 36 miles, thus the reservoir will be able to store up to 39.3 billion cubic meters of water. The height of the river is expected to rise as much as 375 miles upstream of the Three Gorges. Since the change is water level is so drastic, as many as 1.3 – 1.9 million people are being forced to move.

The construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River has a number of positive and negative economic impacts for the Three Gorges area and for China. A cost-benefit analysis was done to determine these impacts. Since the Yangtze River has a tendency to flood frequently, measures have been taken in the past to lessen the impacts on the area. Flooding in the past has cost millions in damages to homes, land, and other property. With the building of the Three Gorges Dam, the flood frequency is increased to one-hundred years, thus lessening the impact floods. The dam will also provide energy for much of China. Hydroelectric power is a self-sustaining, renewable, clean energy resource.

The creation of the reservoir has a number of economic values. It will aid in boosting agriculture, since the reservoir will hold more water for irrigation. It also will provide the surrounding areas with a stable source of drinking water. With a final depth of 525 ft, larger ships can be used to transport products up and down the Yangtze River. The majority of the people living in the reservoir area are uneducated, thus making this transition more difficult. About 1.3 – 1.9 million people were forced to move from their homes along the Yangtze River due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.


The way in which the Chinese government compensates people forced to move is called the “lump sum” method. This method grants people the total net worth of their home and land, according to criteria put in place by the government. The way in which the Chinese government compensates people moving out is called the “lump sum” method. This method grants people the total net worth of their home and land, according to criteria put in place by the government. The Three Gorges Dam, despite some negative impacts on nearby affected society, does offer the positive benefit of flood control. END


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