The Three Gorges Dam

Project

The Three Gorges Dam

Project

Three Gorges Dam The largest dam in

the world. Over a mile and a half long and 600 feet high.

Has displaced over 1.5 million people.

Located on the Yangtze River in the Three Gorges Region.

Statistics

Type of Dam: Gravity Materials: Concrete

Location: The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, longest river in Asia, 3,900 miles long

Estimated Completion: 2009; 17 years to complete

Cost: $36 billion, estimates vary

Reservoir: 370 miles long; not named

Width: 1.24 mile-wide structure across the Yangtze R.; 6,864 feet, 5 times as wide as Hoover Dam

Height: 610 feet above the valley floor

More Statistics

Energy Production: 84 billion kilowatt hours per year; enough to supply 11-15% of China's energy

Work Force: 40,000 people

Impact: Flooding 13 cities, 140 towns, and 1,352 villages, 657 factories, and 30,000 hectares of cultivated land. In addition, thousands of historical and archaeological treasures will be submerged.

Human Impact: 1.3 million people to be relocated in 3 stages in 1997, 2003 & 2009.

•Flood control

•Power generation

•Fishery in the reservoir

•Navigation improvement

•Economic increases

•Tourism and recreational activities

Benefits

•Terrorists target

•Resettlement of 1.3 million people

•Landslides and/or earthquake risks

•Flooded ecological habitats and archeological treasures

•Sewage & pollution & sedimentation

•Risk of spillway failure or dam failure

•Change of water temperature

•Cost / financing

Criticism