Chapter 2-1 Adverse Impacts of The Three Gorges Dam: Introduction

2.1 Introduction

In the previous chapter, I endeavored to provide a detailed account of the magnitude and statistical aspects associated with the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. The last of the 26 hydro-elective generations have been installed only a few years ago and were made ready for commercial operation in 2009. Although the construction of the Three Gorges Dam was, as we have earlier observed, partly inspired by the problem of floods, drought control and the technological ways in which these particular problems might be managed, the controversy surrounding the Three Gorges Project, began when Sun Yet-Sen proposed a rudimentary version of the dam in 1919, with the publication of his “plan to develop industry” which featured dam hydropower as the predominant energy source required to bring China to modernization (People’s Daily, n.d.). However, the actual planning phase ‘debate period’ commenced with Sun Yat-Sen’s initial proposal in 1913, which urged that China’s most effective way to satisfy its energy needs for industrialization would reside in hydroelectric power. None the less, we observed that the construction phase of the Three Gorges Dam did not eventuate until 1994 and was brought to its completion in 2009. The planning phase of debate clearly represents the most protracted period of ‘specific topic’ public debate, perhaps in China’s history.

The second phase of the debate refers to discussion, which took place during the actual construction phase of the dam. Although many of the alleged virtues of the dam and objections to it arose in the original planning phase, they were reiterated during this second phase of debate. The construction phase highlighted also the emergence of actual, not just hypothetical problems. Real issues for debate, such as the dam’s prohibitive cost, especially over-run costs which were predicted by critics to far exceed the official estimates, figured prominently. In addition, a number of other real problems were confronted such as the unanticipated practical engineering problems, actual and new projections of environmental problems, along with humanitarian and socio-cultural concerns associated with the actual, not just hypothetical dislocation of well in excess of a million local residents, both within and in proximity to the dam construction and river flow areas.

I shall endeavor to show that the social, economic, environmental and human suffering costs of the Dam have yet to be fully recognized and addressed. Similarly, although the general concern about the geological risks of building such a humongous project in seismically active regions have been controversial ever since the project’s inception. The risk that the environmentally invasive assault caused by the dam construction might actually increase the frequency of earthquakes and landslides is only now, years after its construction, getting the attention it deserves. The controversy surrounding these issues has been revived in the face of new seismic activity, which indicates that the stability of the earth base under the dam has been compromised (Williams, 1993 &1999). Earlier admonitions about such concerns are being increasingly shown to be frighteningly accurate, and the persistent emergence of unanticipated problems has given detractors of the project an unrelenting level of consternation and fear (ibid). 

In a statement issued after a meeting presided over by former Premier Wen Jiabao, the State Council conceded that the Three Gorges Dam had caused severe disruption to the established harmony of the environment in which if was built, an area of 633,000 square kilometers shared by eight provinces (YWRP,1999). Making these points explicit, the Global Times writes that according to Fan Xiao, Head of Regional Geological Survey Group of Sichuan Bureau of Geological Exploration of Mineral Resources in an interview with the Global Times, “Extreme conditions have increased since the Three Gorges Dam started to store water, but more scientific research is needed to prove a link between them” (People’s Daily, 2011). One worry is that the shipping, agricultural irrigation and water supplies in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are being irrevocably compromised.


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