The Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River in China

Abstract

Despite global concern about the desirability of building mega-dams, the big dam ideology is still alive and well in China. On ljune 2003 the reservoir for the Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River, the largest water conservancy project in the world, should have started to fill and the scheme is scheduled to be fully operational by 2009. The potential of the site was noted in the early 1920s, and although conditional approval was given by the Chinese government in the late 1950s (Mao was a keen advocate of the project), it took more than 30 years for the project to come to fruition. During a protracted planning phase the Chinese leaders received conflicting advice from different government bureaucracies. The development of the project has been fiercely contested both inside and outside China. Asfar as its critics are concerned it is a social and environmental disaster in the making, with the threat ofsiltation, increased pollution, irrevocable damage to the scenery of the Three Gorges, further threats to many endangered species, some already facing extinction, and the loss of valuable cultural antiquities and historical sites. The enforced resettlement of nearly 1.5 million people is already proving to be a problem. Its proponents are equally adamant that it will bring major advantages to the middle and lower Yangtze Valley, notably the removal of the threat of flooding, cheap renewable energy, improved navigation, improved water supply and the transfer of water to North China. The issues are complex and this article seeks to investigate some of the contesting claims of the protagonists1 . The planning period AFTER MANY YEARS of protracted debate and extensive investigations, a major multi-purpose project for flood control, power generation, the improvement of navigation and water transfer is well on the way to completion in the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River (Chang jiang). It has taken 75 years for the project to come to fruition. As early as 1919, Sun Yat Sen wrote an article entitled A plan to develop industry' and in a section on 'Improvements of navigable rivers and canals' set out his ideas for a massive scheme for improving the country's flood control and irrigation system, and for generating electricity, by building a series of large dams on the Yangtze (Winchester, 1998). Since the early 1930s, exhaustive studies have been made of hydrology, sedimentation, site suitability, tectonics, engineering design, construction costs, power potential, flood control and navigational benefits of a dam in the Three Gorges (Boxer, 1988). After the Communist Revolution, major floods on the Yangtze in 1954 were an important catalyst, and conditional approval for a dam was given by the State Council in 1958. The project was given a considerable boost by the support from chairman Mao Zedong who, according to Lieberthal and Oksenberg (1988), wanted China to have the largest hydroelectric power project in the world. But the debacle of the Great Leap Forward (a political campaign designed to boost China's economic development) ended the preparation work in I960. The idea resurfaced in 1963 as part of the new policy to build a 'third front' of industry in south-west China. However, the Cultural Revolution erupted in 1966, and in 1969 the fear that the dam would be sabotaged by the Soviet Union, then an enemy, resulted in a construction delay. Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms introduced in 1978 underlined the need for more electric power to supply a growing industrial base, so the State Council approved the construction in 1979. Why was there such a long delay? From the mid 1950s to the late 1970s the Chinese leaders received conflicting advice from different government ministries and there were different reactions from different provinces to the p oposed developments. During this period a number of key questions were extensively debated. What should be the height of the dam? What should be the purpose(s) of the dam? GEOGRAPHY