As the title has suggested, this post is going to be about the controversial project of China’s Three Gorges Dam. Honestly, I was split into two sides of the project as in all 3 factors of social, environmental, and economic. Some people might argue that it wasn’t worth it due to a large amount of social and environmental disadvantage while some support the project due to the economic advantage it brings. Maybe I’ll make up my mind when I finish my post so let’s just list down all the pros and cons.

Let’s first talk about the social side of the project. One of the main priority and purpose of the Three Gorges Dam was to control the disastrous flooding that has once claimed 30000 lives in 1953. Due to being able to control flooding, the dam is able to protect 25000 hectares of farmland. Job opportunities are created from the construction to the maintenance of the dam. The Three Gorges Dam is also said to be able to provide 10% of China’s electricity needs.

But you can counter that as China’s demand for energy is increasing as its population increase together with its economy, thus unlikely to be able to achieve the figure there. Another problem was that although the dam does control flooding, it is unable to control the flooding on the other side where 632 km² of land home to 400 million people of China, which is also equivalent to 1/3 of China’s population and 1/12 of the world population. Already 1.4 million were forcibly moved. The amount of landslide has also increased, causing cracks in the walls of houses. People living under those roofs are in constant fear of the house collapsing and is having trouble keeping warm especially during winter when cold air seeps through the cracks. The villagers do want help from the government, but there is not only a long waiting list but also a distrust as it was reported that RMB30 million that was meant for relocation has been used for personal wants by corrupted local officials. So as we can see, on the social side, disadvantages overpowered the advantages by a lot.

Next up is the environmental effects this project has brought. I can only provide one environmental advantage of this project which is that it is a renewable energy. Done. Now here comes the bombard of disadvantages.

As we have mentioned before, the number of landslides has increased, and this is due to the water level fluctuating in a great number of 30m. Not only that.  The decrease of silt and sediment heading downstream has also contributed to the increase of river and coastal erosion. The water quality of the famous Yangtze River has gone due to the accumulation of rubbish in the river and pollution. This has caused species to go extinct and be endangered. Not only did Yangtze river dolphin in 2006 extinct, the wetland home to around 95% of the endangered Siberian crane is shrinking at an alarming rate of 4km2/year. Fish stock and phytoplankton in the river have also decreased. Deforestation is also occurring for relocation for the people affected by the flooding. It was kinda funny to me as it was contradicting as many people believe that China should turn to a renewable energy source due to its extensive use of coal. But at the same time, turning to this project as an alternative is also bad despite being a renewable energy. Contradicting, isn’t it?

The economic advantages the Three Gorges Dam is one of the major reasons for turnovers from being against the project to supporting it. As mentioned before, jobs are created. It is said to have generated 100 billion KW an hour, which is as much energy as using 50 million tons of coal does annually. It has a controlled system which allows larger ships to transport and trade goods.

Now here’s the returning blow from the disadvantage side. Despite being said to be able to generate a large figure of energy, it actually depends on the water level, which is greatly fluctuating from time to time.There is actually longer delay caused in the trades due to long queues, which reduces the number of transactions. The amount of energy is actually reduced due to the dam blocking and collecting a ton of silt, ≤50% of the 500 million ton is deposited behind the dam which reduces the storage capacity.

So in conclusion, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea due to the overwhelming amount of disadvantages listed. But who knows whether it will be actually better for a longer term.