Three Gorges Dam Passes Its First Major Test
July 21st, 2010 - 8:28 pm ICT by GDBy Ranjan Bhaduri
July 21, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The huge Three Gorges Dam spanning the Yangtze River of China has passed the flood control test with flying colors. It was completed last year. The dam ran into controversy when doubts surfaced over its capabilities of controlling flood. Flood water with 70,000 cubic meters per second speed hit the dam but it withstood the pressure. The officials said that the dam will play a massive role in controlling flood in China in the near future. The Chinese officials also said that without this dam the smaller dams in the country would not be able to fight flood fully. That may make the adjacent cities endangered as well.
The Three Gorges Dam has been developed at a cost of a whopping $24 billion and it is being touted as one of the world’s largest hydroelectric project. It can contain 22 billion cubic meters of excess flood water as per the Chinese government. However, the dam got mired in controversy since thousands of people had to be displaced for it. A section of environmentalists are of the opinion that this dam can spell an ecological disaster in future. The possibilities of erosion and landslides are there.
China decided to strengthen its flood control mechanism after the devastating flood of 1998. After that year the government has completed more than 25 flood control projects. The officials have said that this dam along with others have been made to undergo extensive test to prove their feasibility. In near future the country will start various other projects for coping with natural disasters. China is also prone to tropical storms apart from flooding.
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Tags: chinese government, chinese officials, control mechanism, control test, cubic meters, ecological disaster, environmentalists, excess flood, flood control projects, flood in china, flood water, flying colors, gorges dam, hydroelectric project, landslides, natural disasters, ranjan, three gorges, tropical storms, yangtze river