Security at the dam site is tight - according to Wikipedia Taiwan believes that posing a threat to the dam will prevent Chinese aggression. A purpose built security and search facility has recently been opened to cater not only for the thousands of Chinese that now visit daily as well as for international tourists. We had to debus and go through a rigorous bag and personal search before re-boarding the busses. Young Chinese soldiers who stand smartly to attention guard every intersection or gate.
I gave some summary statistics in my blog on 8th May 2012 and if you want to read a comprehensive description of the projectthen go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam
The dam is 1.3 miles in length and the top of the dam is 607ft. above sea level. The project used 27.2 million cubic metres of concrete (mainly for the dam wall), 463,000 tons of steel (enough to build63 Eiffel Towers) and moved about 102.6 million cubic metres of earth. The concrete dam wall is 181 metres (594ft.) high above the rock basis. Incidentally after many geological surveys the site at Sandouping was chosen because of an island of granite that stretches under the river and today forms the foundation of the dam and because it dams the Yangtze at one of its steepest points of descent.
When the water level is at its maximum of 175 metres (574ft.) above sea level, which is 110 metres (361 ft.) higher than the river level downstream, the dam reservoir is on average about 660 kilometres (410 mi) in length and 1.12 kilometres (3,700 ft.) in width. The dam discharges its reservoir during the dry season between December and March every year dropping the water level upstream from 175 m to 145 m, in preparation for the rainy season (July – Sept). No wonder we had some 120 steps to climb at some of the later docking points! You have to remember too that on initial flooding the dam raised the water in the gorges by 91metres and that as we sailed through them later in the week we were 145 metres above the original water level!
From the outset this has been a hugely controversial project submerging 150,000acres, drowning 13 cities, 140 towns, 650 factories, 4,500 villages and 1300 archaeological sites including the homelands of the Ba people who are believed to be responsible for the hanging coffins found in the gorges (See a later blog). The project has required the relocation of 1.5 million people mainly farmers who are now housed in new cities such as Wushan, Fengdu and Chongqing and many others along the Yangtze (Many of which we visited and will be described in future blogs).
So what are the benefits of this vast and mind-boggling project that since its commencement in 1994 has been the largest consumer of concrete, steel, dirt and stone in the world. The main benefits are described as ‘calming the dragon’ i.e. preventing devastating flooding in the Yangtze basin restricting the development of such cites as Wuhan, Nanking and even Shanghai, reducing CO2 emissions (The dam generating power saves the equivalent of 60 coal burning power stations saving 50m tons of coal and 100m tons of CO2 a year and finally making the first 1000 km of the 3800 km Yangtze navigable and therefore able to feed the vast amount of raw materials required to support the huge industrial metropolis of Chongqing – our final port of call on this cruise.
The jury is out as to whether in the long term the benefits will outweigh the disadvantages. We were told time after time by local guides that whilst the loss of century old settlements was regretted the new housing in modern spacious flats with running water and bathrooms had vastly improved the living standards of poor subsistence farmers – most of whom as far as I could tell - now manned stalls at all the docks we visited to feed the insatiable desire for souvenirs. The dam is also having an appreciable impact on the level of smog in key cities such as Beijing and Shanghai although much more will need to be done.
Whatever else the Three Gorges Dam is an example of what can be achieved by ‘a one party regime’. In the view of many I spoke to such a scheme would never have gone ahead if ‘the people had been asked’. It is also a testament to the tenacity of he Chinese nation. As I have already commented I was truly amazed at what the Chinese have achieved in 2 decades. Could the west do the same? Well if the lack of political unification in resolving the current Eurozone crisis is anything to go by the answer is ‘No’. Whilst I am not advocating one party politics there is a doubt in my mind as to whether divisive, short term focused politics can resolve such problems or compete with the long-term strategy focus of the Chinese. Having said that of course the Chinese are now suffering from the downturn on the world economy.
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