China’s Three Gorges Dam—Marvel of Technology

The Chinese as a nation have performed many wonders from olden days. The Great Wall， Terracotta Warriors， underground tombs of their kings are testimony to this fact. The largest dam of the world constructed in recent times should also be an addition to the above list.

The Chinese have been great irrigation constructors from ancient days. They have a history of more than 2，200 years in this particular field. China being an agricultural country from time immemorial has built dams across rivers and constructed tanks to irrigate their agricultural land. In 1997 when I visited China at the invitation of the CPAFFC， I had the opportunity of seeing the Dujiangyan irrigation system in Sichuan Province which was 2，265 years old. It is said to be the oldest irrigation system in the world. The Dam was built across river Minjiang which is a tributary of the Yangtze River. This irrigation system is in use even today.

In this article I am trying to explain a present day irrigation marvel called the Three Gorges Dam. China is one of the few countries in the world that suffers immensely from floods. The Yangtze River floods that inundated China in 1911， 1931， 1935， 1954， 1991， and 1998， brought untold misery to millions of people.

With the technological advancement of the 20th century many countries built massive dams across rivers to control floods and to harness its waters to generate electricity and for agricultural purposes. The Aswan Dam across the Nile， Hoover Dam across the Colorado River， Bhakra Nangal Dam of India are few examples.

China too planned to build a dam across the Yangtze River since the inception of the 20th century but kept on postponing due to financial constraints. In addition to control of floods this water was needed for power generation and agriculture.

The building of a dam across the Yangtze River was first proposed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1919， in his book Methods and Strategies of Establishing the Country. Chairman Mao Zedong too had subscribed to that idea later. In a poem written in 1956 entitled Swimming， Mao Zedong envisioned a wall of stone across the Yangtze River after the devastation of 1954 floods.

Walls of stone will stand upstream to the west，

To hold back Wushan’s clouds and rain，

Till a smooth lake rises in the narrow gorges.

This poem is engraved in the 1954 Flood Memorial in Wuhan.

China commenced the construction of the Three Gorges Project in 1994. The dam body was completed in 2006 and the whole project basically finished in 2009. The dam has blocked the Yangtze River at Sandouping of Yichang City， Hubei Province， creating a reservoir of 603 square kilometers. The dam is 2，335 meters in length and 185 meters in height. The Chinese Government has spent 180 billion yuan to construct the dam.

Benefits that China has reaped due to the construction of this dam are manifold. Now the people who live on the banks and the adjacent areas of the river could live without any fear of floods during rainy season. In addition to flood control， generation of electricity is a major function of the project. Experts believe when it is fully functional the project could produce 11% of the power requirements of China. The annual power generation of the project at present is 18.3 gigawatts and it is equivalent to burning of 100 million tons of coal to generate power.

The Three Gorges Power Station is the largest of its kind in the world， a remarkable demonstration of how far the country has advanced in this sector. This power station is outfitted with 32 power generating units each with an installed capacity of 700 megawatts. China is on track to rely on hydropower for 28% of its electricity generation by 2015.

Along with the construction of the dam the Yangtze River was deepened and widened to accommodate more water. This enabled ships of 10，000 DWT to carry goods to the western parts of the country from Shanghai in the east. It has also facilitated cheap transport of products from the west to reach ports like Shanghai in the east for export.

Tourists both local and foreign visit this marvel in their thousands. This has become a main attraction like the Great Wall and a booming tourism industry has developed around the dam. Most tourists visiting the dam use river transport from Shanghai and Nanjing， enjoying the scenic beauty of the countryside.

New settlements have sprung up in the elevated land as the water level of the river rose with the construction of the dam. The government had to resettle about 2 million people in new towns and settlements.

This project has created numerous employment opportunities in the planning and construction industries as well as in the tourism and ancillary industries.

Though the investment was enormous this dam has contributed in many ways for the upliftment of the Chinese economy.

The author is former secretary of the Sri Lanka China Society.