China : World’s largest dam

Completed in 2009 amidst much controversy, the Three Gorges Dam opens up new opportunities for millions of people.

BIG projects requiring superhuman effort seem to be one of the hallmarks of China, and this penchant for construction on unprecedented scale can be traced throughout the country’s long history. Think the Great Wall, the First Emperor’s mausoleum, the Grand Canal and the Forbidden City to name but a few.


Beyond China’s shores, Ming dynasty Admiral Zhenghe’s vast fleet of 200 to 300 vessels and nearly 28,000 people sailed halfway round the world decades before the voyages of Columbus and Vasco Da Gama, in “treasure ships” several times larger and more technically-advanced than European crafts of the time.

Despite the passage of centuries, the country’s predilection for endeavours of this nature continues unabated. In recent years, thousands of kilometres of railway lines have been laid, linking far-flung provinces and regions, sometimes across seemingly impossible terrain like the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. And a stroll through some of the new airports and railway stations can probably qualify as a test of fitness. The country is after all, immense, in both physical size and population.


Tourist attraction: Passengers from cruise ships disembark at the Laohuangling
temple to board a shuttle bus to the site of the dam.

Perhaps China’s most conspicuous grand scheme in recent years is the controversial Three Gorges Dam constructed in the middle reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze River), in some of the most scenic and historical sections of the world’s third longest river.

The project generated fierce debate over potential environmental damage and destruction of archaeological sites. Lives would be disrupted as 1.4 million people had to be uprooted from villages where their families had lived for generations, and resettled. The elderly who had never before stepped out of their communities were especially vulnerable, and one of our river guides recounted that someone she knew just could not adapt and died shortly after the relocation. There are also questions on silting and on the ability of the structure to restrain the mighty river. Then there is its phenomenal cost, estimated at between 200 billion yuan and 250 billion yuan (RM92.37bil and RM115.46bil).


Nonetheless, China being China, work on the Three Gorges Dam began in 1994 and finished 15 years later in 2009, adding yet another colossus to the country’s list of large scale undertakings.

The Dam’s statistics are dizzying: It is the world’s largest; located in Sandouping in Xiling Gorge, it is 185m high and stretches 2.3km across the river. It is the world’s largest water conservancy project, creating a 660km long, 1,084sqkm reservoir one and a half times the size of Singapore.


China’s Three Gorges Dam: The dam is located at Sandouping
 because of the area’s granite foundation.

 It is able to generate 18,200 megawatts of electricity, making it the largest generator of hydroelectric power in the world – 45% more than the next largest, Brazil’s Itaipu Dam – and this capacity will be increased to 22,400 megawatts by 2013. The list goes on.

Despite its detractors, this controversial Dam was designed with three major purposes in mind, namely to alleviate floods such as the one in 1998 that affected nearly a quarter million people; to enable ships and barges of 10,000 tons to navigate between the upriver industrial city of Chongqing and Shanghai, thus speeding up development in the interior; and thirdly to generate power to feed the country’s growing needs.


With enough capacity to supply electricity to towns and villages within a 1,000km radius, the Dam can fuel key industrial-economic hubs as far away as Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Further, its flood control function was proven in July 2010 when major disaster was averted even though the Changjiang’s flood peak exceeded levels reached during the catastrophic deluge of 1998.

A few months ago, I returned to the Three Gorges after my first trip in 1999 when the project was still under construction, and joined one of the cruises that ply the Yangtze River. A standard item on the itinerary is a tour of the Dam site itself where one can get a bird’s eye view of the project.


Ships plying the Yangtze River have to pass through
the dam’s five massive locks to reach Chongqing.


However, whether at the site or sailing on the river, it is hard to gauge its scale and magnitude and it is only when the ship reaches the Dam’s five-stage ship-lock system, reputedly the largest in the world, that one gets a sense of the project’s size.

As you stand on the deck, the lock’s hulking 180m-high gates loom ahead, all heavy grey metal.

The ships form a double queue, approaching the entrance in pairs. The colossal gates begin to open, grating and screeching until slowly, bit by bit a crack appears. You strain to look inside, half expecting to see a lost city or forbidden world only to glimpse a sliver of water and yet another gate 280m in the distance.

The ship enters the lock enclosed by thick, concrete walls and, going upriver, waits for the water level to rise. The next set of gates open. We repeat this process five times, each flight taking 30 to 45 minutes to complete until we sail through the last pair of gates into the clear green waters of the reservoir.

to be continued...................

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